LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




CAPT. G. J. GEORGE. 



WILLIAM NEWBY 

ALIAS "dan BENTON," ALIAS " RICKETY DAN," 
ALIAS " CRAZY JACK," 

OR 

THE SOLDIER'S RETURN 

A TRUE AND WONDERFUL STORY OF 
MISTAKEN IDENTITY 

A NARRATIVE FULL OF STRANGE PARADOXES 



OVER THIRTY YEARS A SOLDIER IN THE LATE WAR — THE LIVING HUSBAND OF HIS OWN 
PENSIONED WIDOW — ACKNOWLEDGED AS HUSBAND AND FATHER BY HIS WIFE 
AND CHILDREN, OF WHOM HE KNOWS NOTHING — A DEMENTED WAN- 
DERER FROM ALMSHOUSE TO ALMSHOUSE, HE IS PICKED UP 

NEAR HIS OWN BEAUTIFUL HOME PROVEN TO 

BE ALIVE BY COMRADES WHO SWORE 

THEY BURIED HIM ON THE 

FIELD OF BATTLE 



BY 

G. J. GEORGE 

LIEUTENANT COMPANY D, 40TH ILLINOIS INFANTRY 



CINCINNATI : 

'^NOV 3^ 1893 I 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1893 by 

G. J. GEORGE 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

Introduction and Prkface; iii. 

I. Early Life of WiIvWAm Nfwby ... i 

II. Was WiLiviAM Nfwby KilIvEd at Shiloh 13 

III. William Newby's Return 35 

IV. Marks of Identification 59 

V. Parallel Cases 67 

VI. Crazy Jack 79 

VII. Dan Benton 91 

VIII. Trial — The Prosecution 143 

IX. The Defense 171 

X. The Judge's Charge and the Verdict . 233 

XI. Review op the Trial 243 

XII. Conclusion 255 

Appendix 267 



INTRODUCTION. 



EARIvY in 1 86 1 William Newby enlisted in 
Company D, 40tli Illinois Infantry, along 
with many of his old White County neighbors 
and friends. At Shiloh, on Sunday morning, 
April 6, 1862, when the rebels made their first 
grand charge upon the Union lines, the 40th met 
them in that deadly conflict, and in a few mo- 
ments many fell. Many were killed and many 
wounded, and Newby, who was left on the field, 
was thought to be wounded fatally. The regi- 
ment retreated, and three days later his comrades 
thought they buried him with the rest. And this 
fact was so reported to the government. It now 
seems that they were mistaken, and that, instead, 
he was taken prisoner and carried away into the 
South to Belle Isle, thence to Andersonville, 
where, although he had lost his reason from the 
wound upon his head, he was kept in that pen, 
and known there as " Crazy Jack," his identi- 

iii 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

fication being complete. After being released 
he wandered over the world for twenty-nine 
years, finally coming to his own country, where 
he was discovered, captured, and brought home 
to his family, whom he did not know. Through 
the effects of kind treatment and familiar sur- 
roundings his reason was to some extent re- 
stored. In due time he applied for discharge 
from the service and for a pension. The case 
being an important one, the government put 
upon the claim its special detective and exami- 
ner, who, after getting Newby's disjointed state- 
ments, and finding he had been at Nashville, 
Tenn., induced the claimant to go down to 
Tennessee, where a fellow by the name of 
"Rickety Dan" Benton was known before the 
war. Benton had many points in common with 
the claimant, and the agent found many people 
there who were willing to swear that Newby 
and Benton were identical. He was then 
brought back from Nashville to Springfield, 111., 
where he was jailed, indicted, and tried as a fraud. 
One trial is over, and another pending. One 
hundred and forty of his old neighbors swear he 
is Newby ; thirty Tennesseeans swear that he is 
Benton ; six men who were in Andersonville 
swear that he is "Crazy Jack" — Three in One. 



INTRODUCTION. V 

We then undertake the task of reducing three 
to one, and that one to be William Newby, who 
served his country as a member of Company D, 
40th Illinois Infantry, and to assist in restoring 
him to his family and to his rights as a brave 
soldier. 



PREFACE. 



OO greatly has the public mind been exercised 
^^ over this strange matter, so famous has the 
history of this great trial become, so astonishing 
the verdict of the jury, and so eager is the pub- 
lic to get hold of the facts concerning this many- 
sided man, that I deem it my duty to satisfy 
public curiosity, and set forth the truth, which 
the world is sure to welcome. 

I knew William Newby in my boyhood. Our 
fathers were pioneers, and worked many years 
on adjoining farms. We joined the same com- 
pany when we went to the war. At the battle 
of Shiloh he was shot before my eyes, and I saw 
him writhing on the ground. Three days after, 
the men, his neighbors and mine, whom I de- 
tailed to bury the dead, reported that they bur- 
ied Newby. 

I believed him to be dead, so I reported to the 
government. 

vii 



viii PRKFACE. 

For thirty years I shared, in common with his 
family, his neighbors, comrades, and the world 
at large, the belief that the record was true. 
That convictions of such long standing should 
be called in question ; that traditions, hoary with 
age, should be overthrown; that the records 
should be proven false, and that the grave should 
give up its dead, seems most strange. 

The blunt, brutal fact is, however, that Wil- 
liam Newby, the man who "kind o' quivered 
and fell over on his side" when the bullet struck 
him on the head at Shiloh, is to-day held pris- 
oner by the government, for knocking at the 
door of the War Department, and asking for his 
discharge, and for compensation for past services 
and sufferings. 

This I am forced to believe. So his old 
mother, his wife and his children believe. And 
such is the belief of thousands who have seen 
and heard the evidences of the poor old wander- 
er's return. 

For the faith of these the public demands a 
reason. 

That the case is full of mystery there is no 
question. In the narrative you have before you 
the wreck of a man who is recognized as being 
three different men once known in different 



PREFACE. IX 

states of the Union, all of whom disappeared 
from the sight and knowledge of men more than 
a quarter of a century ago. 

A cloud of witnesses recognized him as Wil- 
liam Newby, of the Company D, 40th Illinois 
Infantry, who was supposed to have been buried 
at Shiloh. 

A crowd of witnesses from the South rise up 
and declare him to be one Dan Benton, a 
deformed and rickety boy, afterward a vagabond 
and "a mover-on on the face of the earth," 
who shambled up and down the " Granny White 
Pike" in Davidson County, Tennessee, many 
years ago. 

Others know him as Crazy Jack, a wounded 
and demented prisoner in Andersonville, whom 
they had often dragged out of the slime and 
muddy water of that historic stream in 1864. 

All these parties swear point blank to their 
man, and, making allowance for bias due to 
sympathy, prejudice, or politics, they swear to 
what they believe to be the truth. 

The liyes of the three characters. Crazy Jack, 
Rickety Dan, and William Newby, have become 
so mixed up in the minds of men, and so curi- 
ously merged into that of the being we call 
William Newby, that the truth concerning them 
may never be known. 



X PREFACE. 

In the narrative I propose to treat each of 
these characters separately, and hope to vindi- 
cate the claims of the old soldier who stands in 
the shadow-land where the light of reason some- 
times stirs the dreams of the past, and helplessly 
he looks around and pathetically exclaims, "If 
I ain't Bill Newby, who in the hell am I ?" 

I hope, in these pages, to vindicate the judg- 
ment of the hundreds of old neighbors, old com- 
rades, and old friends who now believe that 
Newby was not killed at Shiloh, but was stunned, 
disabled, and carried away a prisoner into the 
South. 

I hope to vindicate the honor of the gray- 
haired wife, who believes that the man she now 
claims to be her husband to be the same whose 
love, cares and sorrows she shared so many years 
on the farm, now mortgaged to raise money for 
his defense. 

To benefit the family of William Newby, 
financially, is, in part, the object of the sale of 
this book. 

The bitter fight made by the Pension Depart- 
, ment upon the old soldiers, and especially the 
I tactics employed by the oflficers, have stirred up 
in the minds of many the questions — 



PREFACE. xi 

Pensions? or No Pensions? 

Will the government Will it point them to 
redeem its pledges to the "two open doors — 
the old soldiers? or, the poor house or the 

grave?" 

While the sense of right and justice is deeply- 
implanted in the hearts of the American people, 
it must be acknowledged that at this time there 
is great uncertainty and unrest in the minds of 
many as to the outcome of this matter, and the 
head of many an old soldier would rest easier 
upon his pillow if he knew it would be answered 
in the affirmative. 

Men are prone to shirk the payment of old 
obligations. We often see a man who is willing 
to thrust off a father or a mother onto the cold 
charities of the world, not deeming the sacrifices 
of their early life to merit protection and care 
in their old age. It should not be a matter of 
wonder, therefore, that, after a third of a cen- 
tury, some men should grow weary of paying 
the debt due to those who defended the country 
in its time of need; those — 

" Whose tottering steps and ancient scars 
Are the living records of their country's wars." 

Had this old relict of the war, this "last leaf," 
this solitary remnant of a mighty army, been 



xii PREFACE. 

permitted to die without applying for pension or 
discharge, he might have passed his days in sol- 
itude, surrounded by his wife and children, and 
ended in peace a life which for misfortune, 
mystery and misery has no parallel. 




WILLIAM NEWBY AND WIFE. 



WILLIAM NEWBY; 



OR, 



The SOLDIER'S Return. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE EARI.Y LIFE OF WII^IvIAM NEWBY. 

TN the interest of truth, and for the purpose of 
-*- setting forth the facts in the early Hfe of 
WilHam Newby in their true order, I have, in 
this year of our Lord, 1893, go^^ to the archives, 
where all child-history is filed away, where all 
infant smiles and tears are recorded, where all 
youthful joys and sorrows, long forgotten by 
ourselves, are treasured, and, like the flowers 
from the coffins of our beloved dead, kept moist 
with memory's tears — to the mother. 

Although weighed down by the cares and 
experiences of nearly a hundred years, and the 
fatigues of a recent journey in behalf of her 

I 



2 WILI^IAM NEWBY. 

boy (sad, too, for when she started to come 
home from the recent trial, she had said : " Tell 
them that I gave my boy to the government 
when they needed him, and now they ought to 
give him back to me"), the result of the trial, 
so unexpected to his prosecutors, so unaccount- 
able to the community in general, and to his 
friends, brought deadly sorrow to her poor old 
heart. When I greeted her and spoke about 
her son, thinking that something was being done 
in behalf of her boy, she exclaimed: "Are you 
trying to do something for my Bill? If you are, 
I want to fling in something." Assuring her 
that I only wanted a few of the recollections of 
his early life, she returned a few coins to her 
pocket, and dropped with alacrity into the sub- 
ject dearest to an old mother's heart — the hard 
days, the precious days, "when the children 
were little." 

Running on, about as indicated, she mixed 
comparison with history in a manner which 
showed how closely she had compared the man 
with the boy. "I was born," she said, "in 1802. 
I had six sons and six daughters. William was 
my second boy, and he was born in Smith 
County, Tennessee, in May, 1826. We came to 
Illinois when he was six years old. We were on 



HIS EARI.Y I.IFK. 3 

the road six weeks, and stopped a few miles 
from here in Wayne County. We raised three 
crops over in Wayne and then moved here, 
William was a good hand on the farm; for a 
boy, he was a powerful worker. When he was 
very young his daddy put him to feeding and 
taking care of the horses. That was a part of 
his occupation, for he delighted to harness and 
manage horses. 

"In many things he has the same ways that 
he used to have. He works around horses the 
same way. He used to carry a pocket full of 
squirrel-skin strings to mend the gears with. It 
took two teams to keep William going when he 
worked on the farm. He would lead an extra 
horse to the field, and when the one that he was 
plowing got tired, he would work the other. He 
used to call me 'mammy' before he went to the 
war, and he speaks it in the same way now. He 
used to work so hard, and he would come to the 
house and say, 'mammy, I'm hungry,' and he 
would eat a whole pie. He does that same way 
now. William was a mighty venturesome child. 
He wasn't afraid of anything or anybody. I 
went off one time and told him not to fool with 
a wild horse that we had, and when I came 
home, bless you, he had caught that horse and 



4 WII.I.IAM NEWBY. 

had made him gentle, and had hauled a whole 
string of fence with him. He always wanted to 
conquer everything ; wanted to break everything 
in, and that's his disposition now." 

In these few rude touches we can see a boy 
that is hearty, hardy, trustworthy, fearless to a 
fault, and industrious as the day is long. Later 
years fulfilled the promises of his youth. I rec- 
ollect well, in my younger days, when the young 
men prided themselves upon their muscle, that 
none of the boys could run Bill Newby to the 
shade in harvest times, and few of them craved 
the other end of his hand-spike at log-roUing. 

At the age of twenty-three he left the family 
hive, selected Fereby Files, the daughter of a 
neighbor, to join with him in the love and labors 
of a new home. By his labor and thrift he had 
raked together enough money to enter five "for- 
ties" of government land, and with his ax on 
his shoulder, and with "Ferebe" and a stout will 
to back him, he entered his new domain. 

"Hard work and hominy," an abundance of 
rough and healthy food, and of rough, hard 
labor, growing farm, full barns, increasing thrift, 
"with now and then a baby to cheer them on 
their way," sums up his domestic life up to the 
war. 



HIS EARLY I.IFE. 



As to social life in general, the man that is 
not familiar with the ways of a new country 
must not imagine for an instant that because 
men were obliged to work hard for a living, that 
therefore the people were uninformed and igno- 
rant, and that life was tame and uneventful. 

At log-rollings and house-raisings, and at the 
village gatherings on Saturdays, all questions, 
public and private, political and religious, were 
discussed with a vigor and settled with a prompt- 
ness which often gave many the headache. 

At large political gatherings the merits of rival 
candidates were often settled with fistic argu- 
ments inside of a ring of sympathetic partisans. 
I make the statement on the authority of two 
distinguished lawyers, one an ex-supreme judge 
of this state, that fifty fights have been known 
to occur on a single Saturday during a term of 
court, and that it was not an uncommon thing 
to have the court adjourn for a time on account 
of the fistic discussions on the outside. 

The people of that time, as I remember them, 
were no more brutal than now, but it was the 
fashion of the times. The moral standard was 
not so high, perhaps. Men were more of a law 
unto themselves. I leave this question of com- 
parison to the moralist, however, and simply note 



6 WIIvI^IAM NEWBY. 

the fact that the man that made himself felt in 
the neighborhood was the man of strong convic- 
tions and a strong, sturdy frame. Such a man 
was WilHam Newby. He was, in politics es- 
pecially, a man of very strong convictions. And 
here, for the sake of space and perspicuity, I 
will drop into the narrative of his old mother. 

"William," she said, "was a Whig, but when 
the war broke out he was a Republican. He 
was a powerful man for a young man, and he 
was strong for the Union. All of my boys were. 
One night his brother-in-law, who was a. South- 
ern sympathizer, came along the road by my 
house and carelessly hollered for Jeff. Davis. 
William happened to be there unbeknowns to 
him, and he jumped on his horse, and chased 
him up the road to chastise him. All my boys 
were strong Union men. They threatened to 
hang my oldest son in Jefferson County, and he 
had to come down here among his friends. Wil- 
liam enlisted in the army the 8th day of Aii- 
gust, 1861. Three of my boys went off together 
to the war. I think they went to Camp Butler, 
Illinois." 

This far thirty-five years have passed in this 
man's life ; a life thus far no more eventful than 
your own or your neighbor's; a life that may be 



HIS EARI,Y I.IPE. 7 

summed up in a very few lines ; a life like yours 
or mine, that might be crowded into an epitaph, 
thus — 

here; lies 
WIIvIvIAM NEWBY, 

Born in Tennessee in 1826, 
Moved to Illinois in 1832, 
Married Ferba Files, 1849, 
Joined the army in 1861, 
Was kil— ..???? 

But here the pen drops. An apparition arises. 
It brings with it strange tales. It represents 
William not as dead, but as very much alive, and 
walking on the earth these thirty years ; walking, 
not as a disquieted spirit, but in human form — 
in at least three human forms, so mixed and 
mingled with each other as to be the imperson- 
ation of a great mystery which defies the keen- 
est research, and has heretofore baffled the efforts 
•of the brightest minds. 

In the next chapter the reader will see Wil- 
liam Newby enrolled, weighed, measured, and 
placed in the ranks of Company D, 40th Illinois 
Infantry. When the battle of Shiloh is over, 
where is he? Killed? and like Lazarus, carried 
into Abraham's bosom? or disabled? stunned? 
and, like the rich man, carried (finally) into — 
Andersouville ? 




MC CORD CO. CIN. O. 



A MAP SHOWING THE POSITION OF COMPANY D AT 




FHE BATTLE OF SHILOH, SUNDAY, APRIL 6, 1862. 



CHAPTER II. 

WAS NEWBY KILLED AT SHILOH? 

U V\7ILUAM NEWBY, age 35; hair dark; 
^^ eyes gray; height 5 ft. 11 in." Such 
is the description of William Newby as it ap- 
pears upon the records of the government when 
he entered the army in 1861. From Fairfield, 
where he was enrolled, he went with his compa- 
ny to Camp Butler, thence to Jefferson Barracks, 
thence to Paducah, Ky., and finally, on Sunday 
morning, April 6, 1862, we find him with his 
regiment in Sherman's brigade, in camp a little 
north of Owl Creek, near Shiloh's meeting-house, 
answering to roll-call for the last time. The fates 
were hovering around us. In two hours Death 
had taken out his toll from our ranks, and Ob- 
livion had marked Newby for his own. 

In order to throw some light on the question, 
"Was Newby killed at Shiloh?" it is proper 
that I should set forth the events of that day as 
I saw them ; and inasmuch as his post was very 

13 



14 WIIvI^IAM NEWBY. 

near my side I may be as competent to state the 
part that he took in this engagement as another, 
and there is no man in the world more desirous 
to record these events faithfully. 

The first question always asked is "Was it a 
surprise? " For this, every man has his own 
answer. I am willing to state most positively 
that I was surprised. 

It was on a beautiful sunny morning, April 6, 
1862. The reveille had been sounded, the men 
had answered to their names, and breakfast was 
in a more or less advanced stage of prepara- 
tion among the different messes. I was multi- 
plying contrivances to reduce my tincupful of 
coffee to a drinking temperature, when the bul- 
lets began to fall in the camp. This incident, 
trifling in itself, has always been proof to me 
-" as strong as Holy Writ " that our superior offi- 
cers did not know that the enemy were moving 
on us that morning in full force. For my part, 
I have always regretted that Sherman did not 
own up to being slipped up on unawares that 
Sunday morning, or, at least, that it was a sur- 
prise in some measure. Picket firing had been 
going on for a day or two, and we had become 
somewhat used to the crack of rifles at the front, 
but here was another state of affairs. Z-z-z-z-p 



WAS HE KII.I.ED AT SHII.OH? 1 5 

a bullet ; z-z-z-z-p another. Here were signs of 
a real battle — signs as unmistakable as the ne- 
gro's signs of rain : " Thunder, lightning, and 
big drops falling in the mill-pond." An " ager," 
totally unlike the Wabash variety, seized me. 
The long roll sounded, and the boys fell in. It 
was our first battle. We faced south, crossed the 
creek, advanced up the hill, and soon saw the 
enemy sweeping on to the attack. We were 
ordered to fall back. We retreat across the 
creek, pass through our camp and through the 
woods in as good order as the nature of the case 
would permit, until we reached a small stream 
a quarter of a mile back (north) of our camp. In 
about a half an hour we reform, or, to be accu- 
rate, we reassemble. By this time the panicky 
feeling had passed away, and all the men were 
full of fight. We were drawn up in line on the 
brink of a little hill, near a swampy, little creek. 
It was here, about thirty paces from this stream, 
that I detailed^Sergeant Merritt and R. H. Mar- 
icle to take William Watkins, who had just been 
struck by a stray missile, to a place of safety. 
This was their principal participation in the bat- 
tle until their services in burying the dead after 
the smoke of the battle had cleared away. 



1 6 WII^IvIAM NEWBY. 

After we had reformed we advanced in good 
order, regiment line of march, east about a quar- 
ter of a mile, or about the same distance we had 
fallen back. Here we were put in line of battle 
facing south, and were marched about six hun- 
dred yards front, where we halted for half an 
hour on the north side of a crooked little creek 
or ravine. The enemy were seen pushing 
through a sage-field in front of us, and we were 
ordered to charge. 

Into the charge we good officers mounted, and 
the gray-coats charged into the woods and down 
upon us. Our line of battle was formed, say, 
seventy-five feet south of the ravine. The com- 
panies, as they stood in line of battle, were in 
alphabetical order, beginning with A on the 
right, and K on the left, ten companies, letter J 
being omitted. 

The left of Company C would rest on the 
right of Company D, which was Newby's com- 
pany, and the right of Company E would rest on 
the left of D. Remember, they were charging 
south ; the right, or Company A, to the west, 
and the left, or Company K, to the east. (See 
map.) The men, coming to the creek, which 
was very crooked, would tend, more or less, to 
cross it at right angles, and would be faced east 



WAS HE KILLED AT SHILOH? 1 7 

or west, as the crooks or turns might bring them. 
As the line of battle was only a few steps south 
of this creek, and as there were trees and logs 
there, which were used by the soldiers to protect 
them from the bullets of the enemy, it is easily 
seen how men belonging to one company would 
naturally be thrown beside members of adjoin- 
ing companies on their right or left, and also 
how men from different companies would be lia- 
ble to see Newby in or after the fight. 

In the arrangement of the men the largest 
were always at the head of the company next to 
the orderly sergeant. Adam Files, being the 
largest, was next to me, then came the three 
Newby boys, William, James and Whaley, all 
large men. 

Files, the Newbys, and Levi Shores — another 
large man — pushed about twenty feet ahead of 
Captain Hooper and myself, and the captain, 
thinking that they were exposing themselves 
too much to the enemy, went forward and told 
them to get down and fight low. Coming back 
to my side, he turned around, and, seizing my 
arm, he pointed to Adam Files, who had been 
instantly killed. Bullets were flying like hail, 
and in another moment Hooper himself fell at 
my feet dead. In a few minutes more (I can not 



1 8 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

tell the exact length of time) I saw William 
Newby, who had been lying low and firing on 
the enemy, squirming around on his right side, 
turning his head to the north, with his hand on 
his head, and blood flowing from the left side 
of his head, somewhere above the ear. He was 
near a tree, by which I think he stopped and 
ceased his efforts to crawl away. Whaley Newby 
lost the use of his right arm here. James es- 
caped unhurt, and has since died in Texas. 

The fire from the enemy becoming more 
and more deadly, and the officers and Captain 
Hooper having been killed, we retreated, leav- 
ing seven men on the field. 

The question is, was William Newby killed? 
Marion Files sa}-s he saw him by that tree in a 
sitting posture, and that Newby told him that 
he was badly hurt, or shot to pieces, or both — 
he was not certain wdiich. 

James Watson saw him after he was shot, and 
says that he was not shot in the forehead, and 
that he was not dead when he saw him. Ser- 
geant Rose, John Null, and others, say that they 
saw him lying on the field, wounded on the side 
of the head. 

William McNeely, who knew Newby, saw the 
dead about noon on Monday, about twenty-four 



WAS HE KILLED AT SHILOH? 19 

hours after the battle, and he says that Newby 
was not one of them. 

Peter J. Files, the hospital steward, whose 
duty it was to look after the wounded, says that 
Newby was not among the dead on the field on 
Monday afternoon. He was a brother-in-law to 
Newby, and a nephew of Adam Files, who was 
killed within a few feet of where Newby was 
shot, and whom he recognized. Mr. Files 
claimed, when the report of the battle was being 
made up, that we would have to look some- 
where else for "Bill." The following is an 
extract from a letter just received from Mr. Files, 
which will explain itself. 

Heber, Ark., August 11, 1893. 
Comrade G. J. George: 

In regard to Bill Newby, I would say that I 
never saw him after he was shot. You doubtless 
know that I was on detail in hospital when the 
battle commenced, but joined the company on 
the left. Newby was on the right, so I did not 
see him shot ; but after we drove the rebels back 
on Monday, past where our men were killed, I 
went back to where our men were killed and 
wounded, to take them off the field. That was 
Monday afternoon. I made a diligent search for 



30 WIIvLIAM NEWBY. 

Bill Newby, but could not find him. I found 
all the rest of our dead; I think forty in num- 
ber. It was easy enough to recognize the dead 
when I first went back. I always did know our 
burying party never buried Newby, but , sup- 
posed he was buried by some other party, for I 
made diligent search for his body, but it was 
not anywhere near where any of the rest of 
the bodies were. It was claimed at the time 
that he was shot near the bodies of Uncle Ad 
(Files) and Captain Hooper. I knew that couldn't 
be so. I see it was sworn to that they turned 
him over and took a knife and some tobacco out 
of his pocket. Now, Bill Newby never used to- 
bacco. I am satisfied that I saw the body of Hi 
Morris on the field. . . . The reason that I 
was not at trial was, I was away from home, and 
did not get home until the 19th, and supposed 
that the trial was over before I knew it was sfo- 
ing on. Yours truly, 

Peter J. Fii^es. 

After the battle he wrote to his sister, Mrs. 
Newby, not to be in a hurry about a pension 
— that Bill was not found there. 

William Murphy, who died about a year ago, 
told me that he saw Newby after he was shot, 



WAS HE KILLED AT SHILOH? 21 

sitting Up by a tree. Thomas Ellis, who also 
died about a year ago, said he saw him alive, 
and knew precisely where he was hit. He was 
seen by about twelve comrades after he was 
wounded, but no one claims to have seen him 
dead on the field of Shiloh. We marched and 
fought eastwardly along the Purdy road, and at 
the "Hornet's Nest" we held the enemy at bay 
until Prentiss was captured, when we retired 
into camp about a mile back (north) of where 
we were encamped in the morning. 

On Monday morning we faced south again, 
and struck the enemy on the Purdy road, east 
of the point of our engagement on Sunday morn- 
ing. We fought and drove them the next day 
without further loss, and camped Monday night 
about three miles southeast of the place where 
we first saw the enemy. On Tuesday we struck 
northwestwardly for our old camp, reaching that 
point about twelve o'clock on Tuesday. 

Here the detail was made by me to go and 
bury the dead who fell on the bank of the ravine. 
They went and buried them on the afternoon of 
Tuesday, certainly more than fifty hours after 
they were killed. These facts are admitted by 
all except W. H. Merritt, one of the two men 
who positively swear that they buried Newby, 
and he claims that he buried him on Monday. 



22 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

The men detailed went and dug a long ditch, 
and buried seven, including William Newby. 

Did they or did they not? Is it possible that 
they could be mistaken? I believe now they 
were. Why? In the first place, we had seen 
him badly wounded. The impression among 
the boys was that he was probably killed, and 
the detail went upon the ground expecting to 
find him, and was ready to take any large man 
that might be lying around there for Newby, in 
the absence of the man himself. 

Corpses, dressed alike in blue uniform, that 
have lain out in the sunshine and rain for nearly 
two nights and three days, and who are swollen 
and discolored, are more likely to be identified 
by their size and general appearance than by 
any close scrutiny of features. I accompanied 
the party myself, and saw the work done. The 
Files boys, sons of "Uncle Ad," who fell first, as 
before mentioned, being unable to go with the 
party, gave me a new blanket when we started, 
and requested me to see that it was placed 
around their father. I identified him mainly by 
his size and gray hairs. He, with the others, 
had lain there two nights and nearly three days, 
during which time there had been two heavy 
rains, with sunshine between. His face was 



WAS HE KII.I.ED AT SHILOH? 2$ 

black. He was greatly swollen, and the foam 
was running from his nose and mouth. 

Any old soldier understands how this duty of 
burying the dead is performed. They are not 
buried as are neighbors at home, with hearse, 
procession, funeral, and sweet songs. 

We must not say that a soldier does not care 
for a dead soldier, but after a man has stood in 
the ranks and shot at men for two or three days ; 
has seen his friends crawling around on the 
ground bleeding like hogs ; has seen brother or 
father fall by his side and give up the ghost 
with only a hollow groan ; when he has made up 
his mind to share a like fate ; when bloodshed 
and carnage have become familiar sights to eyes, 
and the cries and moans of the wounded and 
dying have become familiar sounds to his ears, 
the man's sensibilities become blunted. Then, 
after the enemy has been whipped and driven 
off the ground ; when he is tired and worn out 
with hard fighting, to have to shoulder his spade 
and go out upon a field where the dead are 
thicker than sheaves in the harvest field, is, to 
say the least of it, no labor of love. He ^looks 
upon the burial of the dead, not as matter of 
sentiment, but as a strictly sanitary measure. 
The truth is, that many times he goes in a per- 



24 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

functory manner among the blackened corpses, 
where friends and foes He together in heaps, digs 
the trench, and lays or pitches them in, as the 
case may be. He knows they are indifferent to 
sentiment, and beyond suffering, so holds no in- 
quest, and pronounces no funeral oration. He 
rarely gives the men he buries a thought or a 
look, but feels that the order of the superior 
officer is executed, and his duty performed, if he 
puts his fallen comrades away where fowls of the 
air may not prey upon them and the hogs will 
not root them up. 

Under such circumstances mistakes might 
easily arise, and many have arisen. I was by, 
and did not know whether Newby was buried 
or not, and all the men in the party but two 
claim that they identified him, and knew that he 
was buried — W. H. Merritt and Dr. Maricle. 

And there are other and very good grounds 
for believing that Newby was not buried there. 
As has been stated. Company C was immediately 
to the right of where Newby stood, and it has 
been shown that the members of these two com- 
panies could have easily been mixed up in this 
particular place. 

There were in Company C two men — " Hi " 
Morris and "Mi" Morris. "Mi" was killed, 



WAS nt KlJ.h'E'D AT SHILOH? 25 

and buried. " Hi " was last seen in that charge 
near Newby. He was not buried by Company 
C's men. They reported him missing, but he 
has never been seen or heard of since. The 
adjutant general's report has it that " Hi " Mor- 
ris was discharged. This is a mistake. As 
stated before, he has never been heard of. This 
is sworn to by all the members of his company, 
known to be a fact by the whole community. 
His widow failed to get a pension by reason of 
the fact stated, and married, and now lives in an 
adjoining county. 

The fact is, as we now believe, the boys 
thought they buried Newby, but buried " Hi " 
Morris instead. Another circumstance is worth 
noting. One of the men who believe that Newby 
was found dead on the field claims that he turned 
the body over, and took from his pocket a knife 
and a plug of tobacco. It is a fact attested by 
all who knew William Newby that he never 
used tobacco before the war, nor does he now. 

Now as to the testimony of Merritt and Ma- 
ricle. As stated before, when William Watkins 
was wounded by a stray shot or shell, these two 
men were detailed to carry him off to a place of 
safety. This is the last we saw or heard of them 
until we finished up our triangular march, and 



36 WII.I.IAM NEWBY. 

struck the old camp on Tuesday, where we 
found them. 

There seems to be a fatal weakness in the 
evidence of the first-named gentleman, from the 
fact that he claims and insists that I told him on 
Monday that Newby was dead; and he says on 
oath that he buried him on Monday. This last 
fact can not be true. The whole trend of the 
events, as well as the evidence of the other man. 
Dr. Maricle, and the whole company, is against 
him. If he was detailed by me at all, it must 
have been on Tuesday afternoon, when he had 
no better opportunity of identifying the body 
than other men. 

Dr. Maricle, the most active witness for the 
government, the strong support of the burying 
theory — the Atlas on whose shoulders that the- 
ory rests — has changed his opinion on the matter 
twice since Newby came back, and on whichever 
side you find him you find him an active par- 
tisan. At the trial he swore that he knew Newby 
before the war and in the war. He was not in 
the battle, but saw him the third day after, when 
the dead were buried, identified him, and helped 
to place a board at the head of the grave. 

It is singular that a man who has experiences 
that he is willing to swear to now should have 



WAS HE KILLED AT SHILOH? a7 

expressed doubts as to those same experiences 
but a short time ago. 

When Newby came home, when he had been 
examined, and all the marks found upon his per- 
son, when his recollection of places and events 
had proven him to be the veritable man, as will 
be narrated in the next chapter, Dr. Maricle was 
one of the first to acknowledge the fact, and one 
of the loudest in proclaiming it to the world. 
Mrs. Newby, whose family physician he had 
been for many years, was in Texas visiting, and 
the doctor, in his enthusiasm, hastened to send 
her a long telegram, stating that her lost hus- 
band had returned, and tells her to come home 
and " help kill the fatted calf." This he followed 
up with a six-page letter, setting forth the facts 
of the discovery of her husband and his restora- 
tion to his home. He apologized for the great 
mistake he had made in supposing that he had 
buried the man at Shiloh, congratulated her on 
his return, and urged her to come home and 
join him. 

Maricle was a big man in the neighborhood. 
He was her doctor, and confidential adviser in 
many things. She believed in him, and on the 
strength of these positive statements and these 
appeals, she came home. She met Newby, rec- 



28 WILLIAM ne;wby. 

ognized him on sight, and accepted him as her 
long-lost husband of her own accord. 

The fact that Maricle did preach, argue, and 
contend that the returned man was William 
Newby was notorious throughout the neighbor- 
hood, and his zeal in promulgating the fact was 
equaled only by that of Presley Newby, his 
brother-in-law, and brother of William Newby. 

The telegram and letter, although denied by 
him until produced in court, was finally acknowl- 
edged by him to be genuine. 

" What reason," you inquire, " does he give 
for his alleged belief in Newby, and for the 
writing of this letter?" 

The excuse he gives is, that he was afraid of 
the Newby boys. 

Think of this a little. 

If he did not believe it was Newby, could he 
not have lain low and said little, and thus avoid- 
ed their alleged hostility ? 

Why should boys, peaceable as they are 
known to be, and who had never known their 
father, have had convictions so strong as to 
make it dangerous for their neighbors to differ 
from them? — at a time, too, when they were 
awaiting the return of their mother to learn 
from her whether it was their father or not. 



WAS HE KILLED AT SHILOH? 29 

It is not claimed by Maricle that they stood 
over him with pistol or bludgeon and forced him 
to write that six-page letter. The U. S. mail is 
private, and a man can write what he pleases, 
and he did write that letter voluntarily, and the 
contents were what he chose to make them. 

He could have informed her in that letter that 
there was a man in that neighborhood claim- 
ing to be her husband ; that there were some 
singular circumstances connected with the case ; 
that the boys were of the opinion that he was 
their father, but that he himself had grave 
doubts about it. He could have done this with- 
out danger, and if he had been honest, and be- 
lieved what he says he did, he would probably 
have advised her to come home and settle the 
point, but to use great caution in the matter. 
All this he could have said on one sixth of the 
paper he did use, and yet have taken no chances 
of being injured by the boys. 

What did he do? 

On his own confession in court, he wrote a 
long letter to the gray-haired old widow, his old 
neighbor, whose confidential adviser he had 
been for years, urging her to come home — for 
what ? To take to herself, in the place of her 
husband, whom he knew to be dead, a miserable 



30 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY, 

old tramp ; to live with him in adultery the rest of 
her days ; to take upon herself the care and bur- 
den of a decrepit old man for the rest of her nat- 
ural life. He deliberately tried to inflict upon 
the Newbys a state of affairs that was liable at 
any time in the future to breed a miserable scan- 
dal which would destroy the peace and happi- 
ness of that innocent family. The course pur- 
sued by him certainly lays him open to criti- 
cism. The reason he gives for that course is an 
ugly reflection upon himself, and an insult to 
the intelligence of the community around him. 

The community will not accept his reason, 
and gives what it considers a better one. Dr. 
Maricle, it is claimed, desired to be conspicuous 
in the matter, and there began to be friction as 
soon as the Newbys signified their intention to 
look after their own interests. 

It began to be hinted that it was worth some- 
thing to stand by a man who wanted friends to 
assist him in getting a pension with back pay. 
Doubts soon began to gather over the minds of 
the doctor and Presley in regard to the identity 
of Newby. Presley became so "jubious" about 
its being brother Bill that he declared that it 
would take five hundred dollars to make him 
stand by him. 



WAS HE KILI^ED AT SHII.OH? 31 

The Newby folks were not disposed to make 
any bargains, and, without leave or license from 
the brother-in-laws, went to McLeansboro and 
filed their application. 

Here was a state of affairs not to be tolerated. 
The old lady had taken his advice and medicine 
for years ; he had spent his time and good money 
in getting her to come back from Texas, and he 
now proposed to be consulted. If the widow and 
the boys were going to ignore him and Pres, 
they were stout enough to knock the bottom out 
of the whole thing. He was influential, and 
had been very active in maintaining that it was 
Newby, while Presley had never ceased to pro- 
claim it since he had come home, and now if they 
should go square back on him, they could twist 
public opinion around the other way. The 
scandal-mongers would raise the howl, Newby 
would be run out of the settlement, the public 
would point the finger of scorn at the old widow, 
whom he had gotten into the trouble, and he 
could say to her, "I told you so." 

As to the telegram and letter, that was a mis- 
take. But had not Henry Clay, Blaine, Hancock, 
and other great men, made the same kind of a 
mistake? He could deny it as long as possible, 
and then say that he was afraid of the boys. 



32 WII.I.IAM NEWBY. 

The case, stated bluntly by those who think 
they know, is simply this : These men thought 
that the Newbys were not going to " tote fair " 
with them in the matter of the pension, and they 
proceeded to jump on the old man with both 
feet to crush him. 

It may be stated here that whatever the motive 
may have been, their turning had no such effect. 
There was no turning of public opinion, and no 
collapse except in the prestige, practice, and 
pill-bags of the doctor himself. 

In concluding this chapter, I will say that in 
consideration of the fact that no one saw William 
Newby killed; considering the length of time 
that elapsed between the engagement and the 
time of the alleged burial ; the liability of mis- 
takes under such circumstances, as shown by 
other cases cited in this book ; the character of 
the testimony on both sides — taking all things 
into consideration — there is a presumption, 
amounting to a strong probability, that he was 
not buried at the time alleged, and subsequent 
developments will show conclusively, I think, 
that William Newby was not killed at Shiloh. 




REBECCA NEWBY (" MAMMY"). 



CHAPTER III. 

RETURN OF WILLIAM NEWBY. 

M^HE work of burying our comrades at Shiloh 
■^ was done — done, perhaps, with some ten- 
derness, but without any tears — buried as sol- 
diers bury soldiers — roughly. 

Afterwards we piled the rebel dead in pits, 
shouldered our spades, and left them, friend and 
foe, to rest in peace, until the great roll-call in 
the hereafter. 

Ten, twenty, nearly thirty years have come 
and gone to join the years beyond the flood. 

For a quarter of a century peace and prosper- 
ity have blessed the land. 

The wife of William Newby, now a gray- 
haired grandmother, still lives on the old farm, 
and the children have built themselves homes 
of their own. 

So the year 1891 finds them. 

Then comes the strange rumor that William 
Newby is still alive. Old army men have de- 

35 



36 ' WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

tected in the ungainly figure of a traveling men- 
dicant the wreck of the once manly Newby. 
His gait all broken up, his whole frame threat- 
ening to fall to staves, seemingly, with barely 
sense enough to tell his name, to ask for bread, 
or to pilot him from one poorhouse to another, 
yet, under this ruin of mind and body, Newby 
stands confessed. 

From the general appearance of the man they 
conclude that he must be William Newby. 
They ask his name, and he says that it is 
William Newby, and that he was wounded at 
Shiloh, and carried away prisoner by rebels. His 
reason seemed to be made of the stuff that 
dreams are made of — flitting, fantastic, with now 
and then a real picture from the store-house of 
memory. 

What he did know and what he did not know 
were unaccountable alike. 

Many strange chapters have been written 
concerning the effects of injury to the brain. 
Why, if he knew himself to be Newby, did he 
not 0-0 home? This we can no more tell than 
we can tell why a fever will cause you, my 
reader, to shrink in terror from the wife that 
bends over you to bathe your burning brow. 
Why should he have those old dreams of the 



HIS RETURN. 37 

past? This we can no more answer than we 
can tell why, in the hour of dissolution, when 
oblivious to what is passing around them, the 
dying mutter strange things, and talk of the 
companions of their early youth and childhood. 
However strange seemed his conduct, the fact 
remained that he resembled the man, and knew 
many things that only Newby could know. 

Thoroughly convinced that some great mis- 
take had been made, he was sent to the poor- 
house in his own county, White, and his friends 
informed of the facts here stated. 

We will here turn him over to his friends, and 
our pen to the shorthand- writer, and let them 
tell in their own words the story of the capture 
and restoration to his home, and the gradual 
dawning of his reason, or rather the brightening 
of his recollection when brought in contact with 
the surroundings of his youth. 

From the hundreds of circumstances that 
might be cited to show the nature of the evi- 
dence upon which the friends of the unfortunate 
man base their faith in his being the man we 
claim him to be, I will give the reader a suffi- 
cient number to give food for thought, and if 
he can digest and explain these away, he would 
be able to dispose of the balance. 



38 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

Hezekiah Newby, or "Ki," as he is generally 
called, is an active young farmer, the son' of 
William Newby, living a half mile from the old 
homestead, and a fac-simile of the father when 
he enlisted in the army before the war. When 
asked about the particulars of the discovery and 
return of his father he said : 

"The very first I knew of the matter was this: 
I met Jess Talkington one day, and he told me 
that Newt Moutry told him that William Newby 
was alive, and not dead. I says, ' No, sir, it can't 
be so, because he's dead and buried too long.' 
But that night at supper I asked John Kennett 
if it was possible for people to be fooled in bury- 
ing a man. He said, 'Yes, in war, when they 
are shot, they soon turn black as a hog.' I 
says, 'Talkington reports that father is living; 
he says that Newt Moutry was over at Mclyeans- 
boro, and brought the word over, and Jess told 
him he would tell some of the boys about it.' 

"So the next morning I started to McLeans- 
boro to find the men that said he was father. 
The men were Crede Lay, Allen Baine, Mose 
Robinson, and John B. Smith. They said they 
knew him in the war, saw him about the time 
he was shot, knew him then, and knew him now. 
Some of them told me that there had been sworn 



HIS RETURN. 39 

statements in regard to this being William New- 
by, and I went from there to Carmi, 111., and I 
found him in the White County poorhouse. He 
was out in the back yard, and they called for 
William Newby. He came in and claimed to 
be William Newby. I remarked that this man 
had the Newby foot, and was Newby from the 
chin up. I talked a little with him, and I saw 
that he had the Newby features by the rest of 
the family, including a big No. 10 foot. After I 
had interviewed him, I went back to Carmi and 
went back home to see Uncle Whale Newby, to 
see him and his brothers, that I might get them 
and bring them where they might see him and 
know whether he was the real, identical Newby 
or not. I was doing it in behalf of my mother, 
Ferby Newby. I thought it might be an im- 
postor, and might get her pension away from 
her. She was out in the state of Texas, and 
she might not know what checked it. 

"The family had heard of the report, and 
knew that I had been down there, and the 
family had got together and drawn their con- 
.clusions on the questions as to the marks that 
were on him when he left, that they all knew of. 

"When I got home Uncle Pres stated to me 
that there was a mark made by the kick of a 



46 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

colt on his shin, and also a mark on his foot., 
cut by a broadaxe, a mole on the corner of the 
mouth, a mole on the temple, a slight cut above 
the knee by a drawer-knife, and tooth-marks 
on the arm where old Whout Gray bit him. 

" After I had started to the poorhouse in 
White County, Uncle Whaley and my brother 
had gone there too, and I passed them on the 
side track as I came home, not knowing it. 
When they went down there the man was gone. 
They came back, and Whaley contended that 
from the description they gave him at the poor- 
house it must be Carroll Newby, another broth- 
er. He thought Carroll was personating Wil- 
liam Newby, and says he, ' I wouldn't have him 
do that for my farm.' Him and me and young 
Tullis started together to find father. All the 
way Uncle contended that I was mistaken, and 
that it was nobody else than Carroll Newby. I 
told him that I knew Carroll as well as I did 
myself, and when we found him it wasn't Carroll 
Newby by a good deal. We started on the trail 
at the county farm. We went west and then 
south, and then we went an angling direction to 
New Haven, then in a northern direction. When 
we got eight or nine miles from New Haven we 
lost the trail, and I proposed that we make a 



Sis Ri^TURN. 4t 

circle and make an old-fashioned drive like blood 
hounds. By making about a three-mile circle 
we found the trail again. We took an east direc- 
tion and ran him to the Wabash. The Wabash 
was high, out of its banks, and we caught up 
with him off the road at a farm house. We had 
hunted him two days and had traveled about 
twenty-five miles, and was then about nineteen 
miles from Carmi. 

" We looked for all these marks and scars that 
Uncle Pres had stated were on him, and found 
them all on the very particular places where he 
had made his statements, and then we decided 
that he was no one else but the real William 
Newby, and then proposed to bring him home, 
after examining him. 

" He says, ' How in the hell are you going to 
take me ? What will you do for something to 
ride ? ' I remarked that I was ordinarily stout, 
and could walk and change with one of the 
others. We did this way till we got to Hamil- 
ton, then Uncle Whaley took the train. My 
mother being in Texas, I brought him to my 
house the first night. The next day I took him 
over to the original old home. I said, ' Now, 
this is your old home.' He says, ' The ground 
looks natural, but the building don't look nat- 



42 WII.I.IAM NKWBY. 

ural.' We had. built a big story-and-a-half frame 
on the front and porch where he said he only 
had two cabin houses. He said he never put 
that house there, which was true. I asked him 
if he had built the brick chininey at the old log 
house. He said, ' I had nothing but stick and 
clay chimneys, and if it's my log house it has 
been put there since I left.' This was true, too. 
I was trying to play it on him. I wanted to 
know if he knowed. I took him around to the 
northwest corner of the house, and asked him if 
he remembered the old cistern. He looked down 
and says, ' No, by G — , I never dug that.' Then 
he looked around and says, ' This is not the cis- 
tern ;' he says, ' this cistern is in a southeast 
direction, and is not the cistern I dug, for the one 
I dug was in a northwestern direction, and may 
be filled up if there ain't any there, but I never 
dug this one.' The one that he says he dug was 
actually there, and is there yet, at the very place 
he says he dug it. He had never seen the place 
till I took him to it. 

" He says to me, ' The barn looks like it is in 
the right direction from the house, but the roof 
looks like it has been turned half around, run- 
ning the water-troughs westward. It used to be 
running troughs south. It sits about where it 



HIS RETURN. 43 

used to sit. It may be a short distance east,' 
which is as true as anybody on God's green 
earth could have told it if he had been there 
every day since he left. 

" I was trying him on my own knowing. I 
wanted to write to ma, and I wanted to write 
the truth. I was afraid that he was an impostor. 

" He says, ' Here is the barn and here is the 
orchard. It don't look natural on the west be- 
cause it has been cleared up now where it was 
in timber when I left.' 

"A woman named Amanda Haines, who was 
living on the place at the time, said to him, 'Do 
you know what I was doing when you passed 
our house at John Files, when you were going 
to the war?' He said, 'I don't know exactly 
what you was doing, but the old Missus Files 
was picking geese.' And she was picking geese 
at the barn the last time he was there till now. 

"The next day I went with him to Uncle Jim 
Files'. Jim says, 'Well, Bill, do you know any- 
thing about anything here ? ' And he says, ' I 
don't know, I will look.' Files asked him if he 
could remember anything about his house and 
barn. And Bill says, ' If I understand anything 
I know, your barn was a round-log barn and not 
a frame barn, and it was in a south direction 



44 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

from t!^is house.' We asked him if there was 
anything else he could locate. Says he, 'What 
became of that spring out this way ? ' pointing 
west from the house. He goes to where he 
thought the spring was, and looked for it and 
could not find it. He says it used to run out 
and over this bank and into the creek, and now 
it don't do that way. Files had a ten-bushel 
box turned over it, and he could not find the 
spring at all, but after he had looked all around 
for it, like he was looking for a rat, he said, ' I 
can't find it.' Files said, ' Lift the lid of that box 
and look in.' He did so, and said, ' My God, it's 
walled now ; when I left, it had puncheons over 
it,' which was true, but Files had forgotten it 
himself. 

" Then I taken dinner, and went over to the 
old farm where he was raised. We went out on 
the old place. Where the house is now is a 
little bit northwest from where the old stood, 
and going over on the field we came to it. He 
said, ' My God, here is the very spot where 
mother's old house used to be. This is the old 
chimney-place, and over yonder is the old fire- 
place. Someone said, ' Is that all you recollect ?' 
He says, * Well, no ; there was a cistern a few 
steps in an eastern direction.' They told him 



HIS RETURN. 45 

to hunt for it, and he gave it up and says, ' By 

G , it's filled up.' The boys began to laugh, 

and says, ' You're mistaken in the place.' He 
says, ' No, I aint ; I would know those old chim- 
neys anywhere,' (These were about the only 
brick chimneys in that neighborhood in that 
day.) He said, ' I know what I am talking 
about, for I have been here too often not to know 
what I do know.' Then he began looking, and 
the boys says, ' Bill, look under that rail pile, 
and see if there is not a rat under it.' He threw 

off some rails and says, ' By G , here's that 

old cistern.' The place was covered with weeds 
and sticks. They asked him if he knew where 
the gate was. He says, ' No, I don't ; there 
never was a gate here ; it was an old-fashioned 
pair of draw-bars.' Pointing, he says, ' There is 
where the bars used to be, but no gate at all,' 
and showing us in the direction where the road 
used to run years ago, where there is now a 
ditch twenty-five feet wide, taking in the entire 
road now, and ten feet deep, he said, ' There is 
where the road was, for I remember the road 
when I left here.' " 

These incidents are set down to show the 
manner of Newby's introduction to his home, and 
the methods employed to identify him, and the 



46 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

result. The results, in general, were that he 
located places and recalled facts and circum- 
stances relating to the surroundings of the old 
home that had been forgotten by other members 
of the family. 

Thirty years of the dog-life that he had lived 
and the half demented condition of his mind 
had left their impress on his face, and the effect 
of the bullet-wound on the skull had changed 
his once strong regular gait into an indescrib- 
able teetering motion, painful and wonderful to 
see; so that, to some, the appearance of the old 
ruin of sixty-six failed to recall the robust young 
man of thirty, but there were the marks and 
scars on his person; there were the "Newby 
features from the chin up," including a "No. 10 
foot," as "Ki" put it; there was the man walk- 
ing, or shambling, about the place, describing 
things as they existed long ago, precisely as 
William Newby would have done it. 

However unreal and unreasonable the things 
might seem, with these facts before them there 
was no denying that the man was Newby. 

It will be proper to remark here that all these 
incidents were ruled out at the trial, the witness 
being only allowed to state when on this line 
that he believed the person to be Newby by 



HIS ■ RETURN. 47 

reason of his remembering certain circumstances, 
but was not allowed to particularize. This rul- 
ing is said by lawyers to be an unusual one in 
such cases, but whether it be in accordance with 
the rules of evidence in the courts or not, I pro- 
pose to give a few of them to the public. 

Being desirous of getting the facts at first 
hands from members of the family, I called at 
the home of Andy TuUis, a substantial farmer 
and a perfectly reliable man, a brother-in-law 
to the Newbys. The old mother and two sisters 
of William Newby were present at the interview. 

I said, " Mr. Tullis, I want you to state the 
facts concerning the return of William Newby, 
and tell me what led you to conclude that it was 
William Newby." 

He said, " William Newby returned on the 
13th or 14th day of April, 1892, to Ki Newby's 
house. In the afternoon of. that day we were 
all together for the purpose of settling the ques- 
tion of whether it was Bill or not. Presley 
Newby examined him mostly, and the first ques- 
tion he asked was, ' Did you ever raft logs any ?' 

" He said, ' Yes.' 

"'Where?' 

" ' Out of the White River into the Arkansas, 
with my brother Jim.' 



48 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

" ' Was there any extraordinary circumstances 
happened while you were down there ? ' 

" ' Yes.' 

'"What was it?' 

'■ 'An Irishman died of the yellow fever, and 
they called upon me to shave him, supposing 
him dead. I commenced shaving him, and be- 
fore I was half done the man lifted up one of his 
arms. I dropped the razor and jumped back, 
for I was scared. It was some time before I 
finished shaving him after I found out he was 
dead for certain.' " 

The old lady Newby, sitting by Mr. Tullis, 
stated that this happened forty-four years ago, 
and that her sons Jim and William had talked 
about it many a time after they came home from 
that trip. She also stated that her son Jim died 
twelve years ago in Texas. 

" The next question that Presley asked him," 
continued Tullis, was, ' What did you do with 
your raft ? ' 

" ' Took it out of White River into a big river 
and took it down to New Orleans.' 

" ' Did anything happen to the raft ? ' 

" ' Yes, the raft broke in two, and we lost it.' 

" ' What is the reason you did not come home? 
You stayed nearly nine months on that trip.' 



HIS RETURN. 49 

" ' The principal reason was that Jim wanted 
to join the regular army, and I didn't want him 
to do it because I knew if I came home without 
Jim that Mammy would never forgive me.' 

" ' What else happened ? ' 

" ' I took the yellow fever, and an old Dutch 
woman cured me. Then we both took a notion 
to come home. When we got home, Mammy, 
she wanted to hug me, and made a fuss over me. 
Jim wouldn't be hugged, and he climbed up on 
the lot fence, and Mammy went and hugged his 
legs.' 

The old mother being present at this interview 
with Tullis, I asked her if this was true. She, 
and other members of the family present, stated 
that the thing happened in just that way. She 
said, moreover, that Bill's eyes were yellow from 
the effects of the fever when he came home. 

Tulhs : " Presley's next question was to Bill, 
' Have you ever fit [fought] any ? ' 

" ' Yes, when I was young I would rather fight 
than eat. I had two fights.' 

" ' Where did you have those two fights ? ' 

" ' I had a fight in a little town east of here 
(pointing toward Liberty). I had another fight 
in a meadow.' 

" ' Oh, no,' said Presley, ' it was in a wheat- 
stubble field.' 



50 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

" James Fentoii was present, and said, ' No, 
Pres, he is right; it was in my meadow." 



Mr. Tullis stated that after the conversation 
had been carried on in this manner at consider- 
able length, they all went out over the old 
places, and he corroborates the statement of 
'■ Ki " as to the ability of Newby to describe the 
premises as they once were. 

Mr. Tullis tells this singular circumstance 
which occurred. He said, " I took him down 
to see my wheat. It was April, and we went 
away down in the field. We walked east until 
the family graveyard was right north. Says I, 
' Lets go back.' We had to pass the graveyard, 
and it was grown up thick with brush. Says I, 
' Bill, do you ever have any sassafras in the 
South ? ' He says, ' Lots of it.' We were pass- 
ing through it. We got through the brush, and 
came in. sight of his father's grave, say within 
fifteen or twenty feet. He raised his hands, and 
says: 'My daddy's grave.' He went up to it, 
and sort of half around it, and cried. I saw 
tears run down his cheeks. 

" We said, ' What did your father die of? ' 

"'He died of consumption, and my brother 
Carroll and I hauled these rocks ' " (referring to 



HIS RETURN. 51 

large stones five or six feet by two and one half, 
set on edge around the grave). 

Both these statements were true. 

Said Mr. Tullis, " My son, who M'-ent with Ki 
Newby to find his father, asked William, as they 
were returning, if he ever knew a man by the 
name of Alexander Tullis. He said, ' Yes, I re- 
member about him. He was a Scotchman. He 
was a school-teacher, and a good school-teacher, 
too. He was a tall, slim man, and had spots on 
his face. He had a tolerable big nose and toler- 
able long teeth,' " a description which fit Tullis 
exactly. 

" Notwithstanding all these things," said Tul- 
lis, " I was slow to decide in the matter. I did 
not want to be the means of bringing a strange, 
uncouth man into the family unless we were ab- 
solutely certain that he was the man, and so 
Presley Newby came over nearly every day to 
convince me. Once he says to me, ' What do 
you think William said to me ? He asked me 
(Presley) what had become of that old walnut 
trough that we used to beat apples in for cider, 
and,' said Presley, ' I had forgotten all about the 
trough myself.' 

" I told Pres that I had it. It had been left 
on the old place. It got old and spilled corn, 



52 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

and I told the boys to make stove-wood of it. 
It was a big walnut trough, and went the whole 
length of the sixteen-foot stable." 

The mother and sister of Newby were present 
at this interview and gave their assent to the 
statements of Mr. Tullis all through. 

Turning to the old lady, now over ninety-one 
years old, I said, " Grandma, where did you first 
meet your son William when he came back? " 

" The first time I saw William after he got 
back was at Marion Newby's, his son Marion 
Newby's. I was down there, and they had sent 
for him. Late in the evening he came from Lib- 
erty. He came in at the door, and saw me at 
the table, and knew me to be his mother. He 
came in and told me 'Howdy,' and I says to him, 
' How did you know it was me ?' 

" He said, 'I looked in, and saw you at the far 
corner of the table, and I told them that mother 
had a red head.' 

" He sat down right beside me, and I took his 
hand, and I told him how many tears that I had 
shed for that hand. 

" He said, ' I got my hand bloody, and I reckon 
that's the way it got out.' He said, ' I have suf- 
fered a heap since I saw you,' and I said, ' I 
reckon you have.' 



HIS RETURN. 53 

" He took up my hand, and put my finger to 
his mouth and said, ' Mammy, don't you recol- 
lect when I had that tooth pulled.' I did not 
remember it till he told me that he said when he 
came home, ' I thought that my head would 
come off.' I told him that Ferebe (his wife) had 
the tooth yet. 

" He said to me, ' Mammy, I had forgot that I 
ever had a wife or child.' I said, ' Poor fellow, 
you had ? ' He said, ' Yes.' I said, ' Yes, you 
had a wife and children, for I have lived with 
her.' He said, ' Did she treat you good ? ' I 
said, ' Yes, as good as if I was her own mother.' 
He says, ' I am glad of it.' He says, ' They say 
she has gone to Texas' (she was in Texas then). 
He says, ' Mammy, do you reckon that she will 
like me, or that she will live with me? ' ' Yes,' 
I says, ' she will live with you, William, and be 
glad to see you.'" 

To record the incidents showing the man's 
wonderful knowledge of the past would be a 
task as endless as it would be useless. 

James Files, a neighbor of Newby's before the 
war and now, relates this circumstance : 

" In early times in the large bottoms in the 
West Forks it was common for the farmers to 
have ' wild-hog claims,' which carried with them 



54 WII.I.IAM NEWBY. 

the title to all hogs running wild within his 
territory. The leader and protector of this gang, 
usually an old sow, would wear a bell. Long 
before the war, a man named Arbaugh had an 
old sow, which, with her litter of pigs, was in 
the habit of burglarizing Bill's cornfield. Bill 
got tired of it, and killed the old sow, and threw 
her into the creek, bell and all. I was a witness 
to the fact, but the thing had nearly passed out 
of my mind, and I had never mentioned the cir- 
cumstance to anyone. Since Bill came back I 
was walking with him down the bank one day, 
when he suddenly turned to me and said, ' I 
wonder if old Arbaugh ever got his bell out of 
the creek?'" 

The reader will see that the question implied 
that Newby knew of the circumstance itself; 
that he knew that Files knew it, and that he 
knew that Files knew that he knew it. 

I will here close with a bit of my own ex- 
perience with Newby, which is a good sample 
of all the rest : 

I had been wishing to have an opportunity 
to have a conversation with Newby when he 
was quiet, not for the purpose of convincing 
myself that it was Newby, but to test his mem- 
ory in things that occurred before he left home 



HIS RETURN. 55 

for the war. I being raised close to him until I 
was eighteen years old, and being often in his 
company. I sat down by him one day, and we 
talked about entering land under the graduation 
act of 1852. He entered five forties from the 
government, as heretofore mentioned, and he 
"entered some squatters out," as he stated it. 

I asked him whom he entered out. 

He said, "It was Canada and the Taylors." 

I said, "No, it was the McNights and Canada. 
That's my recollection about it." 

He said, "No, it was the Taylors, and they're 
all mad about it yet." 

Not long ago, I saw Sam Taylor at Spring- 
field, where he was a witness against Newby, 
and I asked him if Newby entered him out in 
1852. 

And he said with much emphasis, "He did 
that." 

At the time of my conversation with Newby 
he said to me, "Did you ever know who burned 
Canada's tan-bark." 

(This tan-bark was stacked upon the land he 
had entered from Canada, and was burned in 
about 1853.) ^ informed him that I did not 
know, but that I had not thought of the matter 
for many years, and asked him if he knew. 



56 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

He said, "Only three men ever knew who 
burned it, and one of them is dead. The man 
that burned it is not dead. I will never tell 
who burned it unless he dies before I do. Old 
Sam Marshall," he said, "told the man that 
burned it that the crime never run out." 

He asked me what became of the Fox land, 
and who now owned it. This land cornered 
with Newby's land. He said somebody had 
cut the timber off. He said Fox went with him 
to Shawneetown at the time that he entered 
that land (which I know to be true), and he 
left the money with old Goodrich to pay the 
taxes, and he had never heard of him up to the 
time of the war (which I also know to be true). 

He said that my father, Frank George, had 
the best work oxen of anybody in the country. 
He said the blue steers were the best yoke he 
ever saw. He said that one time he saw Rat- 
cliff, my brother, hitch them to a heifer of Ed 
Brown's to pull her out of the mire, and that 
he told Brown and Ratcliff that the steers 
would kill the heifer. Brown said, "Let them 
kill her ; we can't get her out any other way." 
They pulled her out all right, but she bawled 
and scared the oxen and they ran off and broke 
her neck. I will state that- 1 was present when 



HIS RETURN. 57 

the incident occurred, and that Ed Brown has 
been dead for thirty years, and RatclifF George 
died before Newby came back. 

Incidents like these could be multiplied in- 
definitely. 

A canvas of the country in which William 
Newby lives would bring to light scores of in- 
stances such as these, more than enough to con- 
vince the inquirer that one of three things must 
be true: 

Firstly, that a majority of the people in that 
part of the country are double-breasted, robust 
liars; or 

Secondly, that the old doctrine of metempsy- 
chosis, or the transmigration of souls, is true, 
and that the spirit of William, finding an earthly 
vessel, a man marked and scarred as he himself 
was, the counterpart of his old self while in the 
body, has taken up his abode therein, and walks 
among men and talks to them of his mortal 
experiences ; or. 

Thirdly, the man is William Newby himself. 




KI NEWBY, SON OF CLAIMANT. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SCARS AS A MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION. 

TT has been noted in summing up the results 
of the trial of claimant that the court, in its 
ominous leaning, did not call the attention of the 
jury to the marks and scars on the person of the 
claimant. These scars were often and most 
particularly referred to by many of the witnesses 
on both sides of the case. It has been remarked 
by a learned legal author, Harris (Law of Iden- 
tity), that " people are much more similar than 
we always remember," not disputing the idea 
existing in so many countries, and which has 
been the basis of so many fables, that "every 
man has his double on the face of the earth." :;- 
" The changes produced by time renders per- 
sonal appearance the most difficult of identifi- 
cation. We separate from a friend in youth ; 
years go by, and we bear his image on the tablet 
of our memory; meet again in old age, and there 
is a mutual surprise to see the changes wrought 

59 



6o WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

by the ruthless hand of Time, and yet there is 
an indescribable something by which you rec- 
ognize him. From general characteristics, from 
family peculiarities or resemblances, you may 
identify him with reasonable but perhaps not 
absolute certainty. But if there be any distinc- 
tive marks or scars upon him, or moles upon his 
person, or cuts with axe or adze, known to you, 
and they are found on him located as of old, 
then comes a corresponding increase of assur- 
ance, and you identify him with great certainty. 
And when you converse with him, if you narrate 
incidents of boyhood days, the reminiscences of 
youth, the, sports at gatherings, hunting and 
fishing, remembers the dogs, horses and oxen, 
and their names, the old neighbors, where they 
lived, whom they married, and how many chil- 
dren they had, and their names, the assurance 
then becomes so full that you identify with ab- 
solute certainty. Without peculiarities, marks 
and scars, rigidly scrutinized, you would have 
failed in your identification." 

"It is wonderful," says the same writer, "to 
think that all the differences in the faces of the 
human race are crowded together within a nar- 
row compass, say within the limit of six by ten 
inches, and all the main features — brow, nose, 



MARKS OF IDENTIFICATION. 6l 

mouth, eyes, cheeks, and chin — are constructed 
essentially on the same general pattern." But 
what a marvelous wealth of difference underlies 
all this uniformity. Among all faces of the hu- 
man race no two can be found so nearly alike but 
that there are persons who may identify them. 
They look for the scars, the marks, the moles, 
listen to the voice. The nose is aquiline, Roman, 
or pug, we know not why, but they know. The 
marks and scars upon animals and men have 
been recognized by people of all ages as means 
of identity, whether natural or accidental. The 
claimant in this narrative seems to have been 
marked and scarred especially for some such ex- 
perience in life as he has encountered. 

To call your attention to the rarity of scars in 
any specified place, and to further suggest their 
value as a means of identification, I will submit 
this proposition: 

I will ask you, reader, to find me a man with 
a scar on the left side of his head, three inches 
above, and one inch behind the ear. I will ask 
you to find a man who, besides having the wound 
designated, is marked with another scar on the 
left foot three inches long ? 

Study for a moment and decide how many 
men you will be likely to examine before you 



62 WII.I.IAM -NEWBY. 

Strike a man characterized by both of these 
marks. 

Add to these two more scars, one on the right 
knee, shaped like a half moon, another on the 
shin. Add to these a mole on the left cheek, 
and tooth-marks on the left arm. 

What will you take to find a man so marked ? 

What length of time do you want in which to 
find him ? 

This is a plain question of probabilities, a de- 
partment of mathematics upon which such things 
as life insurance and fire insurance are based, 
and it is therefore a rational question to con- 
sider. 

What are the probabilities that such a man 
marked that way could be found in a lifetime, 
or in the world? 

I verily believe that but one man lived at the 
beginning of the war with all these marks (ex- 
cept the scar on the head), and that man was 
William Newby. I believe that there is but one 
man in the world to-day marked in that way 
(including the scar on the head), and that man 
claims to be W^illiam Newby, and says that the 
scar on the head is from a bullet wound received 
at Shiloh. (It was on " Crazy Jack " at Ander- 
sqnville.) 



MARKS OF IDENTIFICATION. 63 

On the first Sunday after Newby was brought 
home, as related in the previous chapter, there 
being much excitement in the country, I went 
to see him. I asked Thomas ElHs, whom I have 
mentioned as knowing precisely where Newby 
was wounded, to go with me. He could not go 
at that time, but told me to take notice, and if 
the person did not have a scar on the left side 
of his head about three inches above and one 
inch behind the ear, that it was not Newby, 
and if I so reported, that he would not go to see 
him. 

I drove ten miles, and found the unfortunate 
man at his brother Presley's house. It was Sun- 
day morning, and hundreds had arrived at the 
place, and carriages and horsemen were pouring 
over the hills from all directions. 

When I arrived at the door, someone re- 
marked, "There is the officer who buried him; 
let him talk to him." 

I sat down by his side, and asked him one 
question. He looked exhausted and haggard, 
and complained of being very tired. He had his 
hat on. I raised his hat, and was startled at the 
sight of a scar about the size of a half dollar, just 
where Ellis sai-d it would be if it was Newby. I 
immediately went out of the house, followed by 



64 WIIvIylAM NEWBY. 

Pres and Whale Newby. I said nothing to them 
about seeing the scar. Whaley said, " Brother 
Bill looks awful." I remarked that it was a 
strange business. 

" Yes," said Presley, "it's my b-b-brother 
B-B-ill." (The Newbys all have an impediment 
in their speech.) 

" Then," said I, " You are both satisfied that 
it is Bill? " 

Said Pres, " When Whaley and Ki (Newby's 
sons) went to hunt for him, 1 said, 'Now, Whaley, 
if he haint got a scar on his left foot on the side 
three inches long, cut with a broadaxe, hewing 
logs, and one on his shin where a horse kicked 
him, as big as a half dollar, and one on the op- 
posite knee, cut with a drawer (drawing) knife 
like a half moon, and a mole on his left cheek 
as big as a buckshot, and tooth-marks on his left 
arm, where old Whout Gray bit him in a fight, 
don't bring him back.' " 

I said, " Pres, has he got them on him now?" 

He replied, "He has, and he is my brother 
Bill," and tears came to his eyes as he talked of 
the condition of his mind and body, and the 
manner in which he had been treated. 

I immediately left the place, satisfied that 
those two men were not mistaken as to the man 
being their brother. 



MARKS OF IDENTIFICATION. 65 

Now, a moment's consideration of the propo- 
sition in this chapter will show the utter im- 
probability of finding a man having two or three, 
not to say five or six, peculiar markings in as 
many different places. 

It follows, then, that the man that we claim to 
be William Newby is William Newby, or that 
some creature has submitted to being mutilated, 
maimed, and scarified in order to personate 
Newby, and only Presley Newby and the other 
members of the family knew of the scars when 
he entered the army, and the information could 
only come from them, and Pres Newby is now 
against him. 

The vital importance of the scars on the 
claimant is recognized by the government. You 
will remember that McBride, the special detec- 
tive and examiner, took Newby to Nashville, 
Tenn., for inspection and examination, though 
they evidently did not strip the old fellow, be- 
cause they came to the trial from Tennessee 
only prepared for one scar, the one on the head, 
mentioned by Ellis in this chapter. That scar 
can be seen at any time when his hat is removed ; 
all other scars and wounds (except the mole) are 
hid by his clothing. Hence, they proceed to fix 
that scar, and this by the following process: 



66 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

About the year 1859 there lived a man by 
the name of Ally on the Granny White Pike 
below Nashville, who made wagon-bows by shav- 
ing and splitting them out of white oak and then 
putting them in what they said was a "bender," 
and the said old man Ally, having a bow in too 
much of a "bender," it kicked out and hit Dan 
Benton on the left side of the head, where you 
can now plainly locate the place of the scar. 
The three Ally boys swear that they, with Dan, 
were standing near the " bender," and they all 
said it made a scalp-wound, and did not stop Dan 
from " wobbling" around. This was thirty-four 
years ago. 

Query: Would the scar have been accounted 
for if McBride had not taken Newby to Ten- 
nessee ? 

Alas ! this scar on the head of this once pow- 
erful man is why this book is written. It is the 
preface. By that sliver from the skull, that in- 
jury to the brain and nerve, this man lost more 
than life — his reason. He is thereby compelled 
to ask the government to excuse him for the 
many unaccountable things he has since un- 
knowingly done. 



CHAPTER V. 

PARALLEL CASES. 

J. C. Smith, 1 

65 Sibley Street, Chicago. / 
A^. E. Roberts^ Fah'field^ III. 

Dear Sir: I am directed by Gen. Smith to 
forward to you the inclosed letter, also check 
No. 2,189 for $5, to be used in the "William 
Newby Defense Fund." 

Very truly yours, 

J. C. Smith, Jr. 

Chicago, III., August 8, 1893. 
My Dear Friend Roberts : Enclosed please 
find a small contribution to the fund for the de- 
fense of WilHam Newby, and I thank you for the 
noble stand you have taken in his behalf. I 
am unable to see how anyone could doubt the 
evidence as to the identity of Comrade Newby, 
much less have "a reasonable doubt" as to the 
defendant being Dan. Benton. I feel a deep 
interest in this case, the more so that one of my 

67 



68 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

own soldiers might easily have been in the sad 
plight of William Newby, and now be proven 
someone else other than himself. 

As the Chief of Staff of General James B. 
Stedman, I received a report of the casualties 
of his division in the battle of Chickamauga, in- 
cluding my own regiment, the 96th Illinois In- 
fantry. The original reports of all the regi- 
ments are still in m}'^ possession, copies having 
been made and forwarded to department head- 
quarters and the war department. In the list 
of dead of Company A of the 96th Illinois ap- 
pears the name of Josephus Metcalf, who was 
seen by the officers and members of his com- 
pany to have fallen in a charge, pierced through 
the. brain with a bullet. On that report his 
widowed mother applied for his back pay and 
bounty, which I believe was settled, and made 
application for pension. While this was in proc- 
ess of adjustment Joseph Metcalf came back to 
his regiment, an exchanged prisoner of war. It 
proved that the bullet which struck him in 
center of the forehead, from which blood was 
seen to flow, and which had rendered Metcalf 
insensible, was a spent ball, and it was only 
when about to be buried by the enemy that he 
returned to consciousness. 



PARALLBI< CASES. 69 

Discovering that Private Metcalf was not 
strong, and it being feared that his mind was im- 
paired, he was assigned to light duty, and finally 
to guard some company property from Nashville 
to Chattanooga. More than one year after his in- 
juries at Chickamauga, while on this duty, he fell 
from the train, and was sent to the hospital ad- 
joining the Chattanooga depot in Nashville, and 
there again died. His final statements were 
received by his captain from the surgeon in 
charge, sent to me then in Nashville, and on go- 
ing to the hospital to see about his effects I 
found Joe Metcalf alive and hobbling about on 
crutches. On the muster-out of the regiment, 
Comrade Metcalf returned to his old home in 
Galena, and being a Mississippi River steamboat 
engineer, he engaged in that occupation, as he 
had done before the war. His conduct, however, 
was so erratic that he could not keep a boat long, 
and was shifted about from one to another. Three 
attempts at suicide failed, one of which was the 
cutting of a vein in his arm while at the hotel 
in Dunleith — now called East Dubuque; again 
at Prairie du Chien he took arsenic, but being 
discovered each time the physicians saved him. 
Sitting in my office one day, in Galena, Cap- 
tain Augustus Esty, president of the Merchants' 



70 WILI.IAM NEWBY. 

National Bank of that city, entered, saying, 
" General, I saw one of your soldier boys dead 
at Shullsburg, Wis., yesterday." I asked who, 
and he replied : "Joseph Metcalf." The captain 
then went on to tell me that Metcalf had entered 
a drug-store, purchased a quantity of strychnine, 
saying that he wanted to kill some dogs near a 
mine where he was running an engine, and being 
well known, it was unhesitatingly given to him. 
Upon receiving the strychnine he asked for a 
drink of water, and, taking it in one hand and 
the poison in the other, saying, "Now you will 
see a dead man in less time than you ever saw 
one before," swallowed each, and commenced to 
walk toward the door, but fell dead before he 
reached it. Captain Estey saw the body placed 
in a wagon, to be taken to the mine where he had 
worked, and then left for his home in Galena, 
coming to see me the next day, when he related 
the above story. During the same day John 
Combellick, the owner of a smelting furnace in 
East Galena, also came into my office, and in- 
formed me that the day before he had been to 
Shullsburg, Wis., to purchase mineral, and then 
related the same story as to the death of Met- 
calf. 

No longer doubting the death of the brave but 



PARALLEL CASES. 71 

unfortunate soldier, I wrote his obituary for the 
Galena Gazette^ and it was published substanti- 
ally as above. Judge of my surprise when a 
few days later Josephus Metcalf walked into my 
office, apparently a better man than he had been 
at any time since his death at Chickamauga. It 
seems that Metcalf had taken an overdose of the 
strychnine, and that the placing of his body upon 
an old mineral wagon to haul it over the rough 
roads of that country had been the salvation of 
him ; the jolting turned his stomach, and vom- 
iting saved him. 

The best of the story remains. There is no 
doubt but the bullet wound of the head' had 
affected the brain of Metcalf, thereby causing his 
erratic course for six or eight years, and the 
overdose of strychnine, giving him such a ter- 
rible shock, restored the brain to its normal 
condition, as he has developed no eccentricities 
from that time to this, fully twenty years or 
more. It is sufficient to say, that so far as I 
know, Joseph Metcalf, who has thrice been pub- 
lished as dead, and has as often attempted suicide, 
is now living, sound of mind and in fair bodily 
health. 

Do you wonder that I can understand the case 
of poor Newby, and that I sadly sympathize 



72 WII.I.IAM NEWBY. 

with him in his affliction, and am ready to con- 
tribute my mite to his defense ? 

Yours truly, 

J. C. Smith. 

The following is an extract from an article 
recently published in the Fairfield Republican: 

"a PARAI.LEL CASE. 

"The prosecution depends much on the sworn 
statement of the detailed soldiers that they did 
bury William Newby on the 8th of April, after 
he was shot on the 6th. Allow us to illustrate 
by the case of one of our own townsmen, who, 
as everyone knows, and would swear, is alive 
and with us to-day. It will probably be a sur- 
prise to many of our citizens to learn at this late 
day that G. J. George was slain in battle and 
buried on Kenesaw Mountain the same time 
Slow Barnhill was killed. After that battle 
Rev. R. H. Massey wrote home to the parents 
of Jasper how he was wounded, how he died, 
and how he was buried. The good old Metho- 
dist preacher, John Thatcher, of blessed mem- 
ory, was engaged to preach the funeral. Two 
weeks' time was given him to think of all the 
good things ' Jas ' had done. The day came, 
and with it the largest congregation that had 



PARAIvI^EIy CASKS. 73 

ever met in the old Methodist church. Front 
seats were reserved for a host of relatives and 
mourners, the CDngregation sang ' Nearer, my 
God, to Thee,' the old minister took his text, 
' Man that is born of woman is of few days and 
full of trouble,' in which he assured the be- 
reaved parents that, inasmuch as their boy had 
died killing rebels, that he had gone straight 
to Abraham's bosom. 

" It is quite certain that he made ' Jas's ' 
case fit an angel better than those Tennesseeans 
can make William Newby's case fit Dan Benton. 

" The citizens, thinking that not enough had 
been done for the memory of so good a man, 
called a meeting at the court-house, and long 
speeches were made. A committee, composed 
of Hon. William H. Robinson, J. W. Barnhill, 
both of whom are now dead, and Mr. H. H. 
Beecher, now of Springfield, was appointed to 
draft resolutions, and to set forth the many vir- 
tues that Bro. Thatcher had left out ; and they 
wrote a clincher. The evidence of his death was 
just as conclusive, and, until the following Octo- 
ber, the thing was as implicitly believed as was 
the story of Newby ; but a man who would as- 
sert that Mr. George was buried on Kenesaw 
Mountain would be set down as a fool." 



74 WI1.I.IAM NEWBY. 

The facts in the case were these : On the 
morning of the 27th of June, 1864, I was de- 
tailed to command Company I, 40th Illinois, in 
the charge of Kenesaw Mountain in Georgia. 
We had charged to within fifty or sixty feet of 
the top of the mountain, where the enemy were 
lodged behind large piles of stone. It seemed 
we could go no further, so we halted. The 
Colonel said, " Go ahead," and we instantly un- 
covered and started. Barnhill and other officers, 
with myself, were close together. In a moment 
Barnhill was killed, Captain Fields was wounded, 
and I received a bullet wound in my right leg. 
I looked up, and a fellow was drawing on me 
with his pistol. We exchanged shots, and both 
missed. The next shot I struck his elbow, and 
he shot me in the left side, the bullet ranging 
down through the thigh. In ten minutes our 
troops fell back, and I was left lying on the top 
of the mountain. In one hour more I was car- 
ried away into the South. 

The lieutenant who shot me took away my 
nice new sword, but eight days after, he died, 
near me in the Atlanta hospital, of lockjaw, 
produced by the wound he received in our en- 
counter on the mountain. 

The enemy did not bury our dead, but left 



PARALLEL CASES. 75 

them where they had fallen, and this duty was 
performed by our boys the thii^d day^ when the 
enemy had evacuated the mountain. The boys 
wrote home that they had buried me ; that they 
had marked the spot, and that " I died close to 
the enemy's works, went down fighting," etc. 

From the chaplain's letter and other original 
papers in my possession it is plain that my death 
was an accepted fact until the receipt of a letter 
from me some months after. This letter was 
smuggled through the lines by being placed in 
the lining of the cap of Lieut. Watson, of Ban- 
gor, Me., whom I assisted to escape, and who 
mailed it at Knoxville, Tenn. 

I wish to call attention to the significance of 
scars as a means of identity. Our dead had lain 
three days, and were very much discolored. I 
have a scar on my right arm caused by a cut 
with a knife, known, of course, to my mother. 
A man, who also knew of this scar, came up 
while they were discussing my identity, and said, 
"Look for a scar on his right arm." They pulled 
up the sleeve of the man, and no scar was visible. 
'* It's not he," says the man. " I saw a scar on 
his arm when I worked for his father." He 
afterwards wrote to my mother that he did not 
bury me as the scar was not found. " Scars do 



76 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

not discolor until decomposition has done its com- 
plete work." The fact that this scar was not 
found led my mother to doubt the story of my 
burial, greatly mitigated her grief on the oc- 
casion of my funeral, and caused her to leave the 
door unlocked until my return. 

How various are the fortunes of war ! 

I was not wounded in the head, and what 
sense I had, remained. It assisted me often in 
securing the softest plank attainable to lie upon, 
and in obtaining, by hook or crook, an extra 
meal now and then, and it also enabled me to 
find my way home when the war was over. 

Not so poor old Newby. He was struck on 
the head, with brain injured and his reason de- 
stroyed. He burrowed in his hole, or wallowed 
in the mud at Andersonville, wandered thirty 
years an outcast, found his home by accident, 
and now looks out of jail upon a busy world full 
of free people, and a united country, in the sav- 
ing of which he lost more than life. Why? For 
asking that country to take care of him during 
his few remaining years. 




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CHAPTER VI. 

CRAZY JACK. 

A PERSONALITY which injects itself into 
"^^^ this narrative, and which makes " confu- 
sion worse confounded," is " Crazy Jack," the 
prisoner in Andersonville. 

When the strange facts concerning the return 
of William Newby were sent broadcast over the 
land by the press of Illinois and adjoining states, 
and by the National Tribune^ of Washington 
City, the attention of old soldiers was quickly 
attracted to the case. 

As the nicknames and aliases appeared which 
had been assumed by, or thrust upon, Newby, 
they revived old recollections in the minds of 
old soldiers in different parts of the country. 
When the name " Crazy Jack " appeared it con- 
jured up an ugly ghost in the remembrance of 
many persons who were prisoners in Anderson- 
ville in 1864-5, and they hastened to make par- 

79 



8o WILLIAM NEWBY. 

ticuUir inquir>-, and to put themselves in evi- 
dence to the fact that they knew a creature who 
went by that name in Andersonville, and that 
he was conspicuous as being the most pitiable 
object in that wretched hole. At the late trial 
the identification was complete. 

Although but six witnesses were called to the 
stand on this point, yet the evidence they gave 
was as convincing as that of the thirty Tennes- 
seeans who swore that the prisoner was " Rick- 
ety Dan," or that of the one hundred and forty 
who swore that he is William Newby. 

How important this identification is to our 
contention will appear from the following facts : 

1. William Newby states that he was a sol- 
dier, was wounded at Shiloli, and sent first to 
Belle Isle and then to Andersonville. 

2. He stated at different times and places — 
once in Indiana as early as 1869, that he had 
ofone bv ^•arious names, and that he was known 
as " Crazy Jack " at Andersonville. 

3. He so represented the case to the agent of 
the government. He claimed all along that he 
was there, and we believe he was there. 

Now as to " Rickety Dan " : 
I. He was never in the war, being too young 
to enlist in the U. S. army. 



CRAZY JACK. 8 1 

2. He could never have enlisted, by reason of 
his being rickety from birth T" wobbly," as one 
gentleman stated it;. 

3. Such was the direct evidence of those who 
swore that the prisoner was " Rickety Dan." 

If he never was a U. S. .soldier, he was never 
a prisoner in Ander.sonville. 

Newby was a U. S. .soldier, and the man we 
claim to be Newby certainly was there. These 
six witnesses to the fact were men whose char- 
acters or motives were never called in question. 
They volunteered their evidence becau.se they 
conceived it to be .simple ju.stice to a most un- 
fortunate man ; a man whom they had known 
under the most deplorable circumstances ; a man 
whose abject misery they had commiserated 
even when they themselves were suffering the 
nameless horrors of imprisonment. It is the ex- 
I>erience of these men, and it is the experience 
of every man that languished in a southern pris- 
on, that impressions made under circumstances 
like these are seared as with a hot iron, and 
make scars that time will not efface. 

I myself was a prisoner in the South .six 
months, wounded and half starved, and I know 
that the impressions made there are a part of 
my being as I write this sentence. I .say, with 



82 WILIvIAM NKWBY. 

reverence, that I do not believe that the impres- 
sions made on the minds of the disciples at the 
crucifixion of Christ our Savior were more last- 
ing- 
Mr. William Snyder, of Parkersburg P. O., 
Richland County, 111., testified that he belonged 
to the 14th Illinois Cavalry, and was captured 
on the Stoneman raid, July 27, 1864, near Ma- 
con, Georgia, and taken to Andersonville, and 
remained there three months. He says " Crazy 
Jack " occupied a hole in the sand-bank about 
thirty or forty feet from the old tent under which 
he took shelter. The bank was about thirty or 
forty feet from the channel of the creek, and 
was a mixture of sand and clay. This bank was 
about four feet high, and into it many of the 
unfortunate prisoners burrowed to protect them- 
selves from the heat of the day, or the inclem- 
ency of the night. This way of " entering land " 
by scratching out a hole in the bank and going 
into it fwas peculiar to Andersonville. As to 
whether " Crazy Jack" pre-empted his claim or 
"jumped " it, it is idle to inquire. The chances 
are that it had been the property of some poor 
fellow who had fallen a victim to starvation and 
the ravages of vermin, and when Jack found it 
vacant he went in and possessed it. Mr. Snyder 



CRAZY JACK. 83 

says that he saw " Crazy Jack " often, and had 
seen prisoners pull him out of the creek many 
times, where he had resorted to wash the vermin 
from his body and the worms from the sores on 
his legs. These sores he describes as loathsome, 
and the evidence of them remains to this day. 
He also says that he saw a scar on the left side 
of " Crazy Jack's " head, upon a certain occasion 
when a band of Christian people came in and 
shaved his hair and dressed him up in a long 
shirt. Upon cross-examination, Mr. Snyder was 
required to account for nearly every day and 
every act of his life. He astonished the Honor- 
able Judge and the counsel on both sides by his 
accurate knowledge of the events of the war, 
his unusual precision in stating the sequence of 
events, and his connection with them. After 
passing successfully through this great test of 
memory, pointing toward the prisoner at the 
bar, he exclaimed, " That man is ' Crazy Jack.' 
I could tell him in any part of the world." 

When asked by Hon. WilHam E. Shutt, U. S. 
Attorney, if he positively asserted that the im- 
pressions that the claimant was " Crazy Jack," 
known by him in Andersonville, had never left 
him during the years that have intervened, and 
if he could see " Crazy Jack " in the person of 



84 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

the claimant, his answer was : "The impressions 
made upon the mind of a sane man under the 
conditions .surrounding us at Andersonville re- 
main fixed as long as life remains." 

Andrew Berry, also of the 14th Illinois Cavalry, 
from near Carmi, 111., was captured with Snyder. 
He is an intelligent man and a good citizen. 
He was in a different part of the prison from 
Mr. Snyder, but visited him often, and saw 
"Crazy Jack" often, and knows positively that 
the prisoner is the same person. 

Mr. Joseph A. Russell, of the 48th Illinois In- 
fantry, went to Andersonville about May 27, 
1864. He says that he saw the prisoner walk- 
ing alone on the streets of Carmi soon after he 
was brought home by his son, Ki Newby, and 
recognized him at once as "Crazy Jack" of 
Andersonville, and he could not be mistaken. 

Mr. H. J. Jamison, of White County, was taken 
to Andersonville in the spring of 1864. He be- 
longed to the 56th Illinois Infantry, and saw 
" Crazy Jack " there. He had the scurvy very 
bad, and did not have sense enough to keep out 
of the dirty water. There could be no mistake 
about its being " Jack." 

Joseph Downey, of New Haven, 111., was a 
prisoner in Andersonville eleven months, Mr, 



CRAZY JACK. 85 

Downey is a bright, intelligent man, and says 
that he often saw the prisoner at Andersonville, 
and that he was called " Crazy Jack." 

Mr. Uriah King is a resident of Sangamon 
County, 111., and was a member of the 24th 
Illinois Infantry, and described the hole oc- 
cupied by " Crazy Jack " as a dug-out in the 
bank of the creek. He says that he saw him 
when his hair was cut, but did not see the scar 
on his head. He says that " Crazy Jack " and 
the prisoner are one and the same person, and 
that there can be no doubt about it, 

Letters have been received by the writer and 
the attorneys from remote parts of the country 
stating that they knew " Crazy Jack " in Ander- 
sonville, describing him as above, at least three 
of them mentioning the particular hole into 
which he crawled, and giving its precise loca- 
tion. 

A letter has just been handed me, addressed to 
N. E. Roberts, editor of the Fairfield Republican. 
It was written by Captain Isham M. Blake, of 
Lloyd, Jefferson County, Florida, under date of 
August 13, 1893, in which he says, " I was an 
officer in the Confederate army, and knew one 
federal soldier in an Illinois regiment by the 
name of William Newby confined in the stockade 



86 WIIvLIAM NEWBY. 

at Anderson ville." His attention was called to 
the name by the Chicago Inter-Ocean^ and he 
refers to Senators Call and Pasco. 

Whatever else may be settled or left unsettled 
in the mind of the reader, he must conclude that 
these witnesses saw " Crazy Jack " at Anderson- 
ville, and that they see him in the person of the 
prisoner. It is clear, also, that whether the 
prisoner be William Newby of Illinois or Dan 
Benton of Tennessee, he is " Crazy Jack " of 
Andersonville. 



AN OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF THE PRISONER, WHO 
DANIEL BENTON, AND WHOM THE DEFENSE CI 

SEPARATE HISTORY. 
WIt,I,IAM NEWBY. 

Born in Tennessee in the year 1826 

Moved to Illinois in the year 1832 

His father died about the year ■ 1840 

1S44 

Marries Ferebe Files in the year 1849 

1851 
to 

1858... 

1858 
to 

William Newby enlists in army 1861 

William Newby wounded at Shiloh 1862 

AT THIS POINT THE TWO LIVES 
1864 
Prisoner in Andersonville known as " Crazy Jack" ... 1865 Prisone 

FROM THIS POINT THEY RUN INTO 
1 868. 
Prisoner in Pike County poorhouse, under name of Allen Lewis, states 
Granny White Pike in Tennessee with two women an 

1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, ; 

Prisoner making the rounds of the poorhouses in Pike and Greene coun 

Peter Fair that he was a Union soldier and was shot at Shil 

in Andersonville ; that he was called Bill 

1877. 
Arrested in Camden, Tenn., for stealing a horse and sentenced to the p 

alias Dan Benton. 

1879. 
Escapes from prison and surrendered to the officers by Lydia 

1889. 
Is released, and finds his way to the Indian; 

1890. 
Finds his way into Illinois, where he is recognized and restored to h 

applied for discharge. 

1893. 
Goes with the government agent to Tennessee, and evidence procured t] 
indicted, tried, and found guilty of attempting to perpeb 
by falsely representing himself to be "\ 



/ 

/ 

ROBERTSON / 

/ P 

/ 



K B Br T U C K Y 



i M A C O N 



U M N E R 



'^TROUSDALE 







\W I L S O N \ The Birthplace of 



\s M I T H 

lie Birthplace Oj 
Williatn Newby. 



:y Fudge / 



Id Sawyer Place 

ftvhere Lyclla Bent,'" ^''''tl- 




'\ 



V. 



\ 



W 1 L ir^^m N i jiUTHERFORD CANNON 



SKETCH OF PART OF TENNESSEE AROUND NASH^'LLE, SHOWING "GRANNY WHITE PIKE " AND SAWYER SETTLEMENT, 
ALSO SMITH COUNlY, THE BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM NEWBY. 



r T u ( 



M THE PROSECUTION CLAIMS TO BE 
.AIMS TO BE WILLIAM NEWBY. 



DANIEIv BENTON. 

U M N I 




. Benton born in White County, 111. 
Benton is taken to Tennessee. 



/ rp 1 Benton lives with the Sawyers. 

4 

^ ^^. Benton generally in poorhouse. 

^ Benton wounded by wagon-bow. 



'^ i J^^ CONFLICT. 

r seen in Tenn. and recognized as "Rickety Dan." 
ONE HISTORY. 

then that he was shot at Shiloh. Was seen on 
-TTT- -r- -J ^d recognized as Daniel Benton. 



\ '874. 



, ties under the name of Daniel Benton. Relates to 

\ oh ; that he was called " Crazy Jack" 

^\. Newby in Illinois. 

\ enitentiary for sixteen years. Name, Allen Lewis, 

)n staid. ^-- 

Benton, for which she received $12.50. 

tUTHERFO^ poorhouses again. 

is family. Applied for pension, having previously 



lat he is the son of Lydia Benton. Brought back, 
VILLE, SHOWING ' ' GRArate a fraud upon the government 
Y, THE BIRTHPLACE OF^i^^^^™ Newby. 



CHAPTER VII. 

DAN BENTON. 

A BOUT the year 1843 or 1844, when William 
-^^ Newby, then a stout boy seventeen years 
of age, was working on his mother's farm in 
White County, there was born, in a remote part 
of the same county, the child that was to have 
such a malign influence upon the destiny of the 
unsuspecting young farmer. 

This child, the offspring of an erring girl, came 
into the world without the sanction of the law, 
and was the natural heir to a rich heritage of 
poverty, sorrow, and suffering. Besides the 
misfortunes which are the usual birthright of 
his kind, from the time of his unwelcome advent 
into the world he was afflicted with the rickets, 
a disease of bone and limb that makes locomo- 
tion difficult to perform and painful to observe. 
His mother, Lydia Benton, became a servant 
and dependent in the house of Nicholas Pyle, 

91 



DANIEI< BENTON. 



AN OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF THE PRISONER, WHOM THE PROSECUTION CLAIMS TO BE 
DANIEL BENTON, AND WHOM THE DEFENSE CLAIMS TO BE WILLIAM NEWBY. 

SEPARATE HISTORY. 

WILI<IAM NEWBY. 

Born in Tennessee in the year 1826 

Moved to Illinois in the year 1832 

His father died about the year ■ 1S40 

1S44 ' Benton born in White County, HL 

Marries Ferebe Files in the year 1849 1 Benton is taken to Tennessee. 

1851 i 

to ; 

1858 ' Benton lives with the Sawyers. 

1858 I 

to 

William Newby enlists in army 1861 Benton generally in poorhouse. 

William Newby wounded at Shiloh 1862 Benton wounded by wagon-bow. 

AT THIS POINT THE TWO LIVES CONFLICT. 
1864 

Prisoner in Andersouville known as " Crazy Jack" 1865. . . .Prisoner seen in Tenn. and recognized as "Rickety Dan." 

FROM THIS POINT THEY RUN INTO ONE HISTORY. 
1 868. 
Prisoner in Pike County poorhouse, under name of Allen Lewis, states then that he was shot at Shiloh. Was seen on 
Granny White Pike in Tennessee with two women and recognized as Daniel Benton. 

1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, [874. 

Prisoner making the rounds of the poorhouses in Pike and Greene counties under the name of Daniel Benton. Relates to 

Peter Fair that he was a Union soldier and was shot at Shiloh ; that he was called " Crazy Jack " 

in Andersouville ; that he was called Bill Newby in Illinois. 

1877. 
Arrested in Camden, Tenn., for stealing a horse and sentenced to the jeniteutiary for sixteen years. Name, Allen Lewis, 

alias Dan Benton. 

1879. 
Escapes from prison and surrendered to the officers bj' Lydia Benton, for which she received $12.50. 

18S9. 
Is released, and finds his waj- to the Indiana poorhouses again. 
1890. 
Finds his way into Illinois, where he is recognized and restored to Hs family. Applied for pension, ha\'ing previously 

applied for discharge. 

1893- 
Goes with the governnjent agent to Tennessee, and evidence procured tiat he is the son of Lydia Benton. Brought back, 
indicted, tried, and found guiltj- of attempting to perpetate a fraud upon the government 
by falsely representing himself to be Yilliam Newby. 



X 



92 WIIvLiAM newbV. 

who kindly sheltered the unfortunates, and here 
Dan existed rather than lived, and, like Topsy, 
" growed " in the absence of what mothers call 
" raising," 

Many old people who lived in that neighbor- 
hood, among whom are two of the Pyle family, 
remember the child and his mother during the 
period between 1846 and 1850. They remember 
him as being a little cripple, and some mention 
that he was especially affected in the right leg, 
and Mrs. Acord, a woman of fifty-five years of 
age, remembers well that her father, Nicholas 
Pyle, constructed a " walking-horse," a contriv- 
ance to assist the child in learning to walk. By 
the rule which usually governs the naming of 
illegitimate children he received for his "blood" 
name that of his mother, Benton ; for his chris- 
tian, or "water," name, for less obvious reasons, 
that of Daniel. Henceforth he was known as 
Daniel Benton. 

He is described as being of light complexion, 
blue eyes, light hair, somewhat sunken between 
the eyes, this last peculiarity producing an effect 
upon the countenance which caused him to be 
variously described as " snub " or pug-nosed. 
Two of the members of Nicholas Pyle's family 
state upon oath that the boy Daniel Benton was 



DAN BENTON. 93 

again in that neighborhood in the year 1863, and 
was still of light complexion and blue eyes. In 
the year 1849 *^^ 1850 one x\ndrew Wooten, a 
hillside farmer from Tennessee, whose two-years' 
stay in Illinois had brought neither wealth nor 
contentment, loaded up his cart, and taking 
Lydia Benton and Dan, who was then about six 
years old, under his protection, headed his steers 
for his old haunts on the banks of the Little 
Harper. 

As this vicinity is to be the future home of 
Dan, and the scene of his many mysterious ap- 
pearances and disappearances, I may as well 
describe the locality in this place as in any 
other. 

From Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, 
running southwardly through a rich, undulating 
country, is a highway known as the Granny 
White Pike. Ten or twelve miles south of 
Nashville it strikes a creek know as the Little 
Harper, the southern boundary of Davidson 
County, and the northern boundary of William- 
son, the county seat of which is Franklin. 

South of the creek the roads among the hills 
separate, and worm by tortuous courses on to- 
ward the south. On the benches, spurs, hill- 
sides, backbones of ridges, and in the heads of 



94 WlIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

hollows, and fringed along the roadsides, is the 
aggregation of houses known as the Sawyer 
Settlement. 

Settlements on the barren hillsides contiguous 
to small streams need not be particularly de- 
scribed, as the characteristics of the people com- 
posing them are the same in every state. One- 
story, round-log houses as a rule, with now and 
then one more pretentious, having two stories, 
but devoid of "piazzas," and neither " chinked" 
nor "daubed"; little pole stables; draw-bars for 
gates ; a four-rail fence to prevent the children 
from rolling down the hill ; little patches of corn 
on the hillside or in the bottom, with a sufficient 
number of hounds to fence them, is a description 
applying with more or less accuracy to all. 

The people are kind-hearted, well-meaning, 
and hospitable, and contented to a fault. They 
manage to live well. If spareribs and porter- 
house run short, are there not the woods and the 
creek hard by ? One member of the family is 
detailed to bring in a string of fish, and another 
to knock down a squirrel, or to pick up a ter- 
rapin, and peace and plenty reign in that house- 
hold. I am speaking of this class of hill and 
hollow-dwellers in general, and as they are found 
all over the country. There are, I am told, some 



DAN BEN'TON. 95 

good small farmers on Granny White Pike, after 
you strike the hills. I will mention it, not by 
way of reflection, but as an instance of their 
great, good fortune, that some farmers who came 
as witnesses for the government against Newby 
probably realized more hard cash from this job 
than they have from their farms for the last three 
years. 

From the evidence of the Tennessee people 
we learn that Dan arrived there on time, and 
shortly after took up his abode with a family by 
the name of Sawyer, with whom he lived several 
years. Little can be learned as to Dan's per- 
sonal appearance from these people, except that 
" he looked then as he does now." As to Dan's 
mental caliber at this period, the weight of tes- 
timony goes to show that he was sound in mind, 
and of remarkably good memory. His crippled 
condition developed a gait which, it seems, must 
have resembled that of Newby, and can not, 
therefore, be easily described. One gentleman, 
in attempting to describe it, said that he walked 
as though at every step he would fall on his 
head. Mrs. Betty Fudge, who was a Sawyer, 
and claimed great familiarity with Dan as a 
playmate, describes him as teetering around in 
dresses when eight or nine years old, a fact which 



9^ WILLIAM NEWBY. 

is suggestive of a peculiar custom of the neigh- 
borhood, or an abnormal condition of the boy's 
physical structure. 

Many testify to playing with Dan when a boy. 
One gentleman recalls the fact that he once hit 
him on the head with a brick, from which it 
may be inferred that Dan took a passive rather 
than an active part in the amusements. Old 
man Wooten, who, it seems, continued to take 
an interest in the boy, winds up his antebellum 
history in the statement that he put Dan in the 
poorhouse a few years before the war, where he 
probably remained most of the time until the 
war broke out. 

We are indebted, however, to the recollection 
of four gentlemen, three of the Alleys and a Mr. 
HoUey, for the only definite circumstance con- 
nected with Dan's life that can be angled out of 
the history of those years. They remember that 
about the beginning of the war, probably very 
near the time that Newby was shot at Shiloh, 
Dan was standing around, boy-like, in the way, 
where some men were bending a wagon-bow. 
The bow kicked out and struck Dan on the left 
side of the head above the ear, precisely where 
Newby was shot. They stated that the doctor 
sewed up the wound, and the boy continued to 
" wobble " as usual. 



DAN BENTON. 97 

This is the unvarnished history, so far as it 
can be traced, of the boy whose name, bodilv 
deformity, and "heritage of sorrows" was to be 
fastened on, and become a part of the history of, 
William Newby. 

Both are now brought to the year of 1862, and 
to the state of Tennessee. 

Think of Tennessee in 1862. Think how the 
fearful cyclone of war swept over that state, and 
of the armies that surged back and forth through 
Nashville, and over . the Granny White Pike. 
Down poured the rebels after the capture of 
Donaldson, to reach their new base of defense at 
Corinth. Down came the Federals on their way 
to support Grant's army at Shiloh. Back came 
Buell's army to oppose the movements of Bragg; 
and when that invasion was over, both armies 
were massed in the neighborhood, where, not 
long after, the thunder of cannons at Murpheys- 
boro, a few miles away, made those old hills 
tremble to their bases. 

Where was poor Dan then ? 

Like William Newby, he was swallowed up 
in the vortex of war. 

As stated before, two living members of the 
family of Nicholas Pyle, the man who kept Dan 
and his mother until he was six years old, state 



98 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

Upon oath that Dan came back to the old place 
in White County in 1863. From this we will 
have to infer that when the war broke loose in 
its fury, he " took to the open country like a 
frightened rat from a barn on fire," and sought 
the more peaceful atmosphere of Illinois. Many 
believe that Dan now fills an unknown grave, 
and that some unknown man fills the grave of 
Newby, but, be they alive or be they dead, from 
this point, one and inseparable, their lives " go 
marching on." 

It has always seemed a sort of poetic injustice 
that the clear and lovely Mississippi should lose 
its identity, and that its distinctive loveliness 
should be buried in the muddy waters of the 
Missouri. No less pity is it that the grand old 
Missouri, after moving majestically through the 
continent in its sweep from the far-off Rockies, 
should all at once be robbed of its name, and 
that its grand volume should contribute to the 
name and fame of one of its own tributaries. 

As one looks into the waters of these two 
rivers as they mingle in their lower course he 
seems to detect a spirit of unrest and mutual 
discontent as they flow together in sullen silence 
to the sea. 

That two human lives should become so 



DAN BENTON. 99 

merged into each other as to cover up the iden- 
tity of both ; that the web and woof should be- 
come so tangled as to baffle every effort to pick 
out a single thread belonging exclusively to 
either, is a stranger and a sadder thing. 

Yet such has been the melancholy fate of the 
prisoner. 

Some idea may be gathered of the confusion 
and perplexity connected with the question of 
this man's identity by a glance at the condition 
of affairs in the court-room during the late trial. 
Before you you have the prisoner, a large, swarthy, 
black-haired, dark-eyed man, whose likeness 
you have in these pages. The dazed expression 
of his countenance, the rolling of his eyes, and 
his rambling, incoherent talk, indicate an un- 
balanced mind. His height, length of limb, and 
strong muscles of the back are suggestive of a 
once powerful man. The jerking and twitching 
of the head, the dangling arms, the gait, half 
shuffle and half lunge, indicate a loss of control 
over what are known as the voluntary muscles 
of the body. On his head and body are several 
scars. He says his name is William Newby. 

In the court-room is an array of witnesses, 
some two hundred and fifty in all, and from 
three states in the Union, gathered to decide 



lOO WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

who this prisoner of the government may be. 
The contention is : Is the man at the bar the 
mental and physical wreck of William Newby, 
who, at the age of thirty-six, was shot in the 
head at Shiloh, or is he the natural development 
of Daniel Benton, the fair-complected, blue-eyed, 
"rickety" boy, of sound mind, who, at the age of 
sixteen, was wounded on the head by the wagon- 
bow, the same year, on the Granny White Pike. 

First comes a gray-haired woman, more than 
sixty years of age, and says : " The man is my 
husband, William Newby, whom I married forty- 
four years ago. He is the man who kissed me 
and our six children when he started for the war 
thirty-two years ago. I know it to be him by 
his face and features, still familiar, though 
marked by time and suffering. I know him by 
the deep knowledge that twelve years of mutual 
love, with all the cares and labors of building 
our home and raising our children, would beget. 
I know him by the marks and scars on his per- 
son. I know him by the mutual knowledge of 
the sacred, secret inner life that only husband 
and wife may know." 

The man is William Newby. 

One hundred and forty of the old friends, 
neighbors, and comrades of her husband, look- 



DAN BENTON. lOI 

ing at the prisoner at the bar, say: " The man 
is William Newby." 

Then comes an old veteran, who says : "I 
know this man. I knew him in Andersonville 
prison. I was acquainted with him in 1864, 
under circumstances that would preclude the 
possibility of my being mistaken as long as life 
and reason remain with me. The man's name 
is ' Crazy Jack.'" 

And six other old prisoners from Anderson- 
ville examine the prisoner at the bar and say : 
" This is Crazy Jack." 

Then come more than thirty people from the 
state of Tennessee, who say : " This man we 
have known from our youth up. His mother 
dwelt among us, and we have played with him a 
thousand times. We can not be mistaken. He 
walks now as he did then, and looks now as he 
did then. We are used to seeing his familiar 
but ungainly form passing up and down the 
Granny White Pike. Some of us saw him in 
1864. Many of us saw him in 1868. We have 
known him in poorhouses and we have known 
him in prison. As sure as there is a God in 
Heaven, the prisoner at the bar is none other 
than 'Rickety Dan' Benton, of Tennessee." 

A scene like this would almost justify the con- 



I02 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

elusion on the part of the prisoner himself that 
" all men are liars," or that the rest of the world 
had gone crazy. 

Since nothing can be gathered from the opin- 
ions of the witnesses, the inquirer turns to the 
evidence in the case. When he has carefully 
considered the proven or admitted facts, the fol- 
lowing are some of the difficulties that will con- 
front him : 

If the prisoner be William Newby, how does 
it happen that since the year 1870 he has 
adopted and worn the name Daniel Benton? 

If he be William Newby, how did it happen 
that when Dan Benton disappeared, that he was 
known in the neighborhood as Dan Benton ? 
Acknowledged Lydia Benton as his mother, and 
Was acknowledged by her as her son ? 

If he be William Newby, how could the thirty 
Tennesseeans mistake him for Dan Benton, 
whom they claim to have seen, at intervals, 
from his boyhood to the year 1889? 

On the other hand, if he be Dan Benton, how 
does it happen that he has five or six distinct 
marks and scars on his person corresponding 
exactly to those known to have been on the 
person of Newby before the war ? 

If he be Dan Benton, how could he have been 



DAN BENTON. 103 

in Andersonville as Crazy Jack at the same time 
he, a boy of twenty, was passing up and down 
the Pike in Tennessee ? 

If he be Dan Benton, how did he happen 
many years ago to tell Peter Fair, the govern- 
ment witness, from the Pike County poorhouse, 
that he had been wounded in the battle of Shi- 
loh ; that he had been a prisoner in Anderson- 
ville, and that he was known there as Crazy 
Jack; and that he was known in Illinois as 
William Newby? 

If he be Dan Benton, how comes he to be 
familiar with events, places, roads, locaHties, old 
landmarks, improvements which Dan Benton 
never, by any possibility, could have heard of, 
and many of which had passed into the region 
of the forgotten until recalled by the prisoner 
himself in his lucid moments ? 

The history of Dan Benton as a distinct in- 
dividual having come to an abrupt termination 
with the beginning of the war, and having given 
the reader some idea of the complications grow- 
ing out of the subsequent history, I can do no 
better than to chronicle the facts relating to the 
acts and wanderings of the prisoner, which one 
side claims to be those of Daniel Benton, the 
other side those of William Newby. 



I04 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

The first time the two characters came in con- 
flict after their simultaneous disappearance was 
in 1864-5. 

We have seen heretofore how the prisoner was 
seen and known in Andersonville under the 
name of Crazy Jack, and thought by the wit- 
nesses to be about thirty-five or thirty-eight years 
of age. 

Now comes Washington Bond, of Tennessee, 
and states that at this identical time he met Dan 
Benton, now the prisoner, one mile from Hills- 
boro, wearing a dark suit of clothes, and riding 
a mare. He said to the prisoner, " How are 
you, Dan?" and he said, "How are you. Wash?" 

Richard M. Daniel had a farm, but lived with 
Lydia Benton in 1865, and Dan came there and 
stole his horse in daylight. It developed later 
on that he never paid for it himself, it probably 
being an old relic of Bragg' s invasion, or a 
remnant of Hood's army, which collapsed a few 
miles from there late in 1864. 

J. W. Alley saw him in 1864, and knows, 
moreover, that Dan got his head hurt after the 
war, as he was present at the time. T. J. Burn- 
ham saw him on the Pike at the close of the 
war. Robert H. Hill said that he saw him in 
1864 or 1865. 



DAN BENTON. 105 

From the evidence of these two sets of wit- 
nesses we have on the one hand the boy Dan 
developing into a young fellow of twenty, law- 
less, mean, and rickety, dressed up, and having 
a love for riding ; on the other hand we have 
a man of thirty-eight, naked, demented, being 
dragged out of the mud. It is easy to conceive 
that both characters are true and real, but the 
dijBficulty is, the seven men on the one hand and 
the five men on the other swear to the fact that 
the prisoner before them is the man whom they 
saw. 

Three years more go by, and we come to the 
year 1868. Peter Fair, an inmate of the Pike 
County, Ind., poorhouse, a witness brought by 
the government, stated that he knew the pris- 
oner well, and had seen him often. 

For many years it had been the habit of the 
prisoner to make the circuit of the poorhouses 
of southern Indiana. He had drifted into the 
Pike County poorhouse in 1868, and enrolled 
himself as Allen Lewis. Since that time he had 
come and gone often. His return has been peri- 
odic. In his peripatetic wanderings he has seen 
him come and go with less regularity, but with 
the certainty of the wild goose. He has learned 
to gaze on his wobbling gait as it carried him 



Io6 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

into the dim perspective, and to confidently ex- 
pect his return. 

In the year 1868 the prisoner was seen by as 
many as a dozen of the witnesses on the Granny 
White Pike in company with two women. Betty 
Fudge, the playmate and companion of his 
youthful days, testified that Daniel halted in 
front of her gate on the Pike, and one of the 
women asked for a melon that was in sight ; that 
Dan stood at the gate, and that she never spoke 
to him. Several saw him, and knew him by his 
rickety walk, but few spoke to him. Those who 
did, state that he was inquiring the way to I^ydia 
Benton's. The dozen witnesses who saw him 
on this trip with the women all swear that it 
was in the year 1868, and it was the opinion of 
every one of them that he was about thirty 
years old at that time. These people testified 
that Dan was about thirteen to fifteen at the be- 
ginning of the war, and he could not have been, 
according to their own testimony, over twenty- 
two or twenty-three at the time they say they 
saw him on the Pike. 

Another singular circumstance connected with 
that trip is the fact that those who spoke to him 
say that he was manifesting a desire to get to 
the home of his alleged mother, Lydia Benton, 



DAN BENTON. I07 

and, although within a mile or two of the place, 
there is no evidence that he ever went there at 
that time. The woman with whom he traveled 
on the Pike in 1873 or 1874, and who was the 
woman, evidently, who stopped at Betty Fudge's, 
states that they never went to see Lydia Benton, 
and that she never saw her in her life. 

Whether those people were right or wrong in 
regard to the prisoner being there in 1868, we 
find him at one of his favorite poorhouses in 
Green County, Ind., in 1869. Pike and Green 
County poorhouses are about fifty miles apart, 
and while on his circuit he registered at these 
two at the following times: Green, in 1869; 
Pike, 1870; and again Pike in 1872; Green, in 
1873, 1874, and 1875; his stay at these resorts 
varying from a few weeks to a much longer 
period. 

In 1872, in the Pike County poorhouse, his 
connection with Hannah Stewart begins. Peter 
Fair states that at about this time they left the 
poorhouse together. She herself says, " My 
child by Stewart was born in 1872, and in the 
spring we left the poorhouse, and in about a 
year we, together with another woman, were on 
the Granny White Pike, in Williamson County, 
Tenn." 



SoS William newby. 

Under this common-law marriage the prisoner 
and Hannah lived and moved and starved to- 
gether for years as they went their weary rounds. 
There is no evidence that either was not as 
faithful to their self-imposed vows as those who 
march to the altar to the sound of the organ, 
whose vows are solemnized by priest or preacher 
under wreaths of orange-blossoms. Two chil- 
dren was the result of this attachment, one of 
whom died, and the other, a half-witted boy of 
sixteen, lives in Tennessee with his mother. 

In 1877 the prisoner, who had wandered to 
Benton County, on the Tennessee River, was 
arrested for stealing a horse. Court was in ses- 
sion at Camden, the county-seat at the time. 
The next day the prisoner was indicted by the 
grand jury, and taken before the court, plead 
guilty, sentenced for a term of sixteen years in 
the penitentiary, and the third day was shipped 
to Nashville to serve out his term. 

There is little information to be had on this 
matter except the record itself, which shows the 
facts as above related. The prisoner, of course, 
can give no coherent account of the affair. The 
general tenor of his story is that he tired of walk- 
ing, and concluded that he would ride a while 
for a change, and when ready to do so he in- 



tended to turn the horse loose. He was caught, 
taken back to Camden, and sentenced. It is 
likely that horse-stealing was too prevalent in 
the vicinity at that time, and a good victim was 
wanted. It is pretty certain that no investiga- 
tion was made as to the mental condition of the 
man. That he was crazy, as he now is, only to 
a greater degree, is plain from this fact : When 
he was sent to Nashville to the penitentiary he 
soon became a " trusty," that is, trusted to go 
beyond the walls of the prison to do errands or 
to perform labor outside. It had been the pris- 
oner's privilege to drive up the cows for the 
warden. After he had been there for two years, 
he V became weary of the restraint, and one day, 
when sent by the warden to drive up his cow, 
he procured a suit of citizen's clothes, hid under 
a culvert to put them on, and walked off down 
the Granny White Pike until he struck the hills, 
and halted in the Sawyer neighborhood. In a 
day or two he was caught, the Sawyers say, at 
Ivydia Benton's, who, they say, gave him up for 
half the reward, or $12.50. 

By running away this time he forfeited all his 
" good time," by which is meant the amount of 
time deducted from the length of his term for 
good conduct. The trustees, after he was taken 



no WILLIAM NEWBY. 

back, restored his good time, " because he was 
of feeble mind and a cripple." This is the lan- 
guage of the record. It is very evident, then, 
that he was of " feeble mind and a cripple " 
when he was put in the penitentiary, and had 
been for years. There is abundant proof that 
the prisoner was feeble-minded from the state- 
ments of the government's witnesses. Dr. May- 
field examined him, and found him to be of fee- 
ble mind. Another witness speaks of him being 
a trusty, wheeling dirt on the outside, and still 
another relates that while he was working in the 
penitentiary the prisoner knew enough to open 
gates when people instructed him to do so. 

If, then, he was in that condition when he 
stole the horse, we can easily understand why 
little is known besides the bare record. He was 
marched to the court-house in Camden, and 
asked if he took the horse. He said, " I did." 
" Sixteen years in the penitentiary." The whole 
thing was done in less time, and attracted less 
attention, than an ordinary three-dollar case be- 
fore a justice of the peace. 

There is something peculiar in this Lydia 
Benton matter. We have just seen how she 
turned the prisoner over to the authorities for 
the $12.50 reward ; we have noted that when he 



DAN BENTON. Ill 

and the women were on the Pike in 1868, as the 
people there claim, or in 1874, ^^ the woman 
herself claims, that he did not go to the house 
of Lydia ; and it is another singular fact that 
during the time he was in the penitentiary he 
was never heard or known to have called her his 
mother — always Lydia Benton. It will not do 
to say that the whole " Mother Lydia Benton " 
story is a fabrication, any more than it will do 
to say that a whole community in Illinois are 
telling what they know to be false when they re- 
late the story of Newby's recollection of events 
long past. But there are internal evidences in 
these stories of the prisoner's relation to this 
woman that forces the conviction that there is a 
great mistake somewhere, and whatever that re- 
lation was, and wherever it may have begun, she 
knew that he was not her son, and he knew that 
she was not his mother. 

There is one characteristic running through 
the history of this prisoner that would seem to 
show that it was Newby and not Dan Benton. 
We know from abundant testimony that Newby 
was shot in the head, and very badly wounded. 
Thousands of examples attest the fact that such 
wounds are liable to affect the brain in such a 
manner as to destroy the reason, and to paralyze 



tl3 WltlvlAM NBWBY. 

the members of the body. When the prisonet 
was in Anderson ville, whither he had been 
moved from Belle Isle, we find him helpless — 
both crippled and demented. All along the line 
he is accredited by those that met him with 
little sense. His good time was restored to him 
in the prison on account of being feeble-minded. 
That was in 1889. Those who have read of his 
return in 1890 will see at once that he was not 
of sound mind. To-day it is perfectly plain to 
everybody that his mind, though greatly im- 
proved in the last two years, is yet far from 
sound. 

Notwithstanding the testimony of the wit- 
nesses, as above stated ; notwithstanding the 
testimony of the physician, Dr. Mayfield, and of 
the prison records themselves, that he was "of 
feeble mind and a cripple" (and for that reason 
he received the only kindness which those people 
ever bestowed on him — his " good time "), not- 
withstanding all this, the theory of the govern- 
ment is that the prisoner is a sane, shrewd, de- 
signing fraud and scoundrel. 

This implies that disguised in that rickety 
frame is a brain to conceive, a mind to plan, and 
a will to execute deep-laid schemes. By this 
theory he is credited with powers of invention 



DAN BENTON. II3 

sufficient to enable him, unaided and alone, to 
originate a scheme for defrauding the govern- 
ment that would have done credit to the genius 
of Aaron Burr. According to this theory, he 
was not crazy, as the prison authorities sup- 
posed, but his " feeble-mindedness " was only a 
part of his deep-laid scheme. He was cunning- 
ly laying the wires when he told in Indiana of 
being shot at Shiloh, and of being in Anderson- 
ville. He was simply preparing for a raid on 
Illinois, when he stated that he was known by 
the name of Newby in that state. He had never 
seen Newby, or been seen by him, yet he proposed 
to saunter into the country where Newby had 
formerly lived, knowing that some old soldier 
would drop his eye upon him, recognize him, and 
announce that the old soldier had returned. He 
came, and the plot is carried out according to 
the programme, and when he found himself 
sought after by the people he had come to de- 
lude with consummate shrewdness, he attempted 
to get out of the state into Indiana, knowing that 
he would be pursued, overtaken, and returned 
by anxious dupes, and compelled by deluded but 
well-meaning natives to apply for a pension. 

The theory of the government and the verdict 
of the jury imply that all this nonsense is true. 



114 WII.LIAM NEWBY. 

It is difficult to believe that twelve men could 
be found to believe the one, or to subscribe to 
the other. 

At the beginning of this chapter I started ou t 
with the design and promise of giving the reader 
the history of Daniel Benton. That duty I claim 
to have performed honestly and impartially, 
until the light of history grew fainter and fainter, 
until it shone with only a faint and dubious 
beam, and then went out in the darkness alto- 
gether. I then reviewed the history of the pris- 
oner, who, as has often been stated or implied, 
carries with him the names and histories of both 
Benton and Newby, is afflicted with physical in- 
firmities common to both, and is doubtless the 
living image of one or the other of those historic 
men. The question which of these two charac- 
ters the living man represents is rendered ex- 
ceedingly difficult from the fact that his own 
acts and deeds for the last thirty years are the 
accredited history of both. 

When instructing the jury on this point of 
identification the judge made the following state- 
ment: "The resemblance of one man to another 
physically often misleads, but the old aphorism 
that ' no two men are alike within ' is full of 
wisdom for your guidance." 



DAN BENTON. II5 

It is very clear that the identity of this man 
can not be settled by testimony on the ground 
of personal resemblance, for, as we have seen, 
more than thirty people swear that he bears the 
image and likeness of Benton, and more than 
one hundred swear that the personal resemblance 
is that of Newby. 

We are forced, then, as was the jury, by the 
necessity of the case, and by the wisdom of the 
aphorism, to conclude that the prisoner before 
us is Dan Benton, if his mental condition con- 
forms to that of Dan Benton, or that it is Newby 
if mentally he most resembles Newby ; or, in 
other words, he is the man who, compared with 
himself, is found, in the language of His Honor, 
to be " morally, socially, and mentally the same 
within." As to morals, both Newby and Benton 
have been accused of thefts. Socially, they both 
moved in poorhouse society, and one was the 
son and the other the associate of a fallen 
woman. Since, then, physical resemblance and 
moral and social characteristics fail to distinguish 
them, we must look into the mental conditions 
of the men. 

For the general information of the reader and 
for the purposes of this comparison, the mental 
condition of the prisoner, ascertained by personal 



Il6 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

observation and also upon the authority of neigh- 
bors, friends, and his family physician, may be 
stated about as follows : 

His mind is better now than when he re- 
turned. At that time he was subject to fits, but 
good treatment and general improvement in 
health has made these of very rare occurrence, 
and have tended to greatly restore his mind. At 
present, in his lucid intervals, he will talk ra- 
tionally upon a subject that he knows anything 
about, for two to five minutes, but after that he 
runs wild. 

On quiet days, when in good health, not wor- 
ried, or embarrassed by a crowd, he frequently 
talks sensibly for a short time, but when out of 
health or annoyed he is perfectly irrational. 

"At no time," says a gentleman who has ob- 
served him closely, " has his mind been in such 
a condition that you could sit down and talk 
with him right along for more than five minutes 
at a time." 

With the mental condition of this man we will 
compare the mental condition of Benton, as 
shown by the witnesses for the prosecution. 

W. K. McDowell testified that he knew Ben- 
ton when a boy, and " he was never of unsound 
mind and never subject to fits," 



DAN BENTON. II7 

Robert D.Reed: "Played with Dan when a 
boy. He always appeared to be of sound mind, 
and never subject to fits." 

Mrs. Angelina Sawyer " knew Dan from the 
time he was six years old. When a youth he 
never had fits, had a sound mind, and a remark- 
able memory." 

And so on through the list of the thirty Ten- 
nesseeans who knew the boy up to the war. 
The question as to Dan's mental condition was 
put to all, and was answered with many varia- 
tions, but to the same effect by all. 

He was characterized as being " smart enough," 
"cunning," "sharp," "cute," "smart as other 
people," etc. Many testified to being his con- 
stant • companion and playmate, and the direct 
and indirect evidence is that in intellect he was 
the equal of any of them. 

This comparison has been fairly made, and 
shows conclusively that there is not the least 
similarity between the prisoner and Dan Benton. 
On the other hand, it is clearly seen that in 
bent, strength, and condition of mind they are 
absolutely and entirely different. 

Nor does the real Dan Benton conform any 
more closely to the alleged Dan Benton known 
after the war. This individual, as has been, and 



Il8 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

can be more fully shown by the government 
witnesses, was in a condition almost identical 
with the prisoner at the present time. 

The evidence is perfectly conclusive, as has 
been shown before, that in the penitentiary he 
was considered crazy. Permit me to again refer 
to the fact that the records of the prison speak 
of their alleged Dan Benton as being " of feeble 
mind and a cripple." Dr. Mayfield, the assistant 
state physician, said, " He was not regarded by 
me as being mentally well balanced." 

Lem Sawyer, when speaking in reference to 
his return to the prison, said that he did not re- 
gard Dan as being of a sound mind. 

These statements, with others that have been 
given, and still others that could be given, go to 
prove that it was well known to all connected 
with the penitentiary that the man they claim to 
be Dan Benton was of unsound mind. The ac- 
tions of the man himself prove it. When he 
escaped from the prison, if it were true that 
Lydia Benton was his mother, it was the act of 
a crazy man to go and put up at her house, only 
twelve miles away from the penitentiary, right 
under the shadows of the homes of Sawyer, 
Wells, and Talkington, officers of the prison. 

The discovery was made by all these people 



DAN BENTON. 119 

while he was in the penitentiary that he was of 
unsound mind, a discovery which might have 
been made by them when he traveled on the 
Granny White Pike in 1868 or 1873 had they 
not passed him, as they say they did, in silent 
contempt, or with a few words at most. 

The plain facts of the case are, that the in- 
dividual known after the war, and claimed to be 
Dan Benton, closely resembles in mental charac- 
teristics and general actions the prisoner at the 
bar, while neither the prisoner nor that individ- 
ual has the remotest resemblance to the real 
Dan Benton. 

The prisoner and the man known after the 
war by the various names are acknowledged to 
be one and the same person. That the prisoner 
is of feeble and unsound mind is a matter of ob- 
servation. That the individual referred to was 
of feeble mind has been abundantly proved. It 
has also been proven that Dan Benton before the 
war was in this particular the opposite of both. 
Then these questions force themselves upon us : 
When and wherefore did Dan Benton cease to 
have light hair, blue eyes, and light complexion, 
and become a swarthy, dark-haired, dark-eyed 
man? 

When and wherefore did Daniel Benton 



I20 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

change from a bright and cunning youth to a 
man of feeble mind? 

How happens it that those who profess to 
have known Dan all his life can give no account 
as to when and how these changes in his physic- 
al and mental condition occurred? 

When the alleged Dan Benton was released 
from prison in 1889, why did he turn his steps 
northward, toward distant poorhouses in Indi- 
ana, instead of going to his mother's home a few 
miles down the Pike ? 

Daniel Benton is too difiicult to understand. 
I think that an easier solution of the identity of 
the mysterious personage on trial may be found 
in William Newby. 

We have seen how he was shot in the head 
at Shiloh, and left on the field. We have given 
the circumstances tending to raise a doubt as to 
his having been killed at the time. In addition 
to those already given, it will be found in the 
history of the trial that two of his comrades, not 
heretofore mentioned, went to the battlefield 
after the engagement and searched for the body 
of Newby, and failed to find it, although the 
bodies of the other members of the company 
were found. 

The question as to whether he was or was not 



DAN BENTON. 121 

buried on the third day, Tuesday, has been fully 
discussed. It may be added in this connection 
that the testimony of Dr. Merritt, one of the 
men who positively swore that they buried Wil- 
liam Newby on Tuesday, is further weakened by 
the fact that he states in the evidence that 
" Newby was shot in the forehead, over one 
eye." 

I think that it will be conceded that there is 
a strong probability that he was carried away a 
prisoner by the enemy. Much stranger things 
have happened. The man whom we are trying 
to identify claims that, although he has for a 
long period of time been called Dan Benton and 
various other names, he is the identical William 
Newby that the men above referred to sought 
for and failed to find, and that he was carried 
away prisoner, and was sent first to Belle Isle 
and then to Andersonville. The evidence is 
conclusive that this man was in Andersonville, 
and known as "Crazy Jack." He was demented 
and crippled. Learned doctors testify that an 
injury to the head such as Newby was known to 
have received would be likely to produce such 
results. By examining the testimony of Peter 
Fair it will be seen that as far back as 1868, 
when going by the name of Allen Lewis, he said 



122 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

he was shot at Shiloh ; was hurt on the head by 
a piece of bomb, and that it made him crazy. 
In 1889 he stated that he had been known as 
Crazy Jack, and that in IlHnois he was known 
as Bill Newby. 

The prisoner bears several marks and scars 
that were known to be on the person of Newby 
before the war, and at lucid intervals he relates 
facts and circumstances which could be known 
only to Newby himself. Why, then, is he not 
William Newby? 

Because he has by some means acquired the 
name of Benton. Because it is claimed that he 
looks like Dan Benton. Because he is said to 
have frequented the neighborhood where Dan 
Benton lived. Because it is alleged that he and 
the mother of Dan Benton naturally acknowl- 
edged the relation of mother and son. 

Are these facts capable of an explanation ? 

In regard to the question as to which individ- 
ual the prisoner most resembles, I think that the 
description given of Dan in his childhood and 
the opinions of the hundred or more Illinois 
people may be fairly considered as a set-off 
against the opinions of the thirty v\^itnesses from 
Tennessee. 

The question as to how he chanced to wander 



DAN BENTON. 123 

into the neighborhood of Nashville would be 
difficult to answer. It might be that an image 
of that dreadful scene where he was shot was 
photographed dimly on his mind, and this at 
first was all the picture of his past life that 
presented itself to his consciousness, and, like a 
murderer, he might have been drawn by some 
mysterious influence back toward the spot where 
the tragedy occurred. 

Again, by looking at the map, you will dis- 
cover that a straight line drawn from Anderson- 
ville prison to the home of Newby in Illinois 
will pass directly through Nashville. When 
Newby was turned out of prison he may have 
been shipped by some one as far as Nashville in 
the direction of his home. 

It will also be remembered that the birthplace 
of William Newby was in Smith County, Tenn. 
By reference to the map it will be seen that this 
county lies very near to Nashville, and it is quite 
certain that Newby was born, and lived until he 
was six years old, within fort}^ miles of that city. 
His old mother told me recently that so loth was 
she to leave that country that at one time, on 
their journey to Illinois, they turned back and 
journeyed three days toward their old home, but 
finally decided to come west. It is likely that 



124 WIIvIvIAM newby. 

his childish recollections and the oft-repeated 
stories of his mother had made impressions of 
his native country as vivid to his shattered mind 
as those of later years, and those impressions 
may have caused him to gravitate in that direc- 
tion. Since he did not go home, he was as 
likely, at least, to drop into that neighborhood 
as into any other. 

How did he receive the name Dan Benton? 
The transferring of names is very frequently and 
very easily done. It is a matter of common ob- 
servation and universal experience that if, by 
reason of accident, an individual receives a tem- 
porary injury that causes a peculiar limp or gait, 
or a comical change in the expression of the face, 
or unnaturalness in the voice, he is jokingly 
called "Old So-and-So," referring to the man (or 
cow, for that matter) that suggests the com- 
parison. 

We are told that Dan Benton had the same 
rickety walk that the prisoner has. He was re- 
marked and noticed in the surrounding country, 
and up and down the pike, by reason of his 
"wobbling" gait. He was in Nashville often, 
and, according to the statement of one gentle- 
man, he walked from the poorhouse to Franklin 
nearly every Saturday. He was also known in 



DAN BENTON. 125 

surrounding towns. Two or three armies were 
stationed in the neighborhood at different times. 
" Rickety Dan" was a frequenter of camps, and 
was employed by the soldiers to smuggle whisky. 
It is reasonable to suppose, then, that many 
people were acquainted with the name and walk 
of "Rickety Dan." The weight of evidence 
shows that at the beginning of the war, say 1862, 
the real Dan disappeared from the immediate 
neighborhood, and was not seen there again un- 
til 1868. Indeed, the age the witnesses place 
upon the man they claim to have seen on the 
Pike, and the direct testimony of the woman 
whom they saw with him, makes the first ap- 
pearance in the neighborhood (supposing that it 
was he) as late as 1874. At any rate, if the real 
Dan Benton ever came back, it must have been 
after an absence of at least six years. If, in the 
meantime, Newby should have drifted into that 
country (and I have suggested some reasons 
which might have led him there), and started to 
walk, say from Franklin to Nashville, as he went 
pitching and tumbling along the highway like 
a ship in a storm, or a porpoise on the swell of a 
wave, nothing would be more natural than that 
people would say, " He walks like ' Rickety 
Dan.'" "There goes that 'Rickety Dan.'" 



126 WILLIAM NKWBY. 

" Hello, ' Rickety Dan.' " He would come to be 
called " Rickety Dan " by many people, whether 
they believed him to be that person or not, partly 
because they knew no other name for Him, and 
partly from the pure love of caricature so uni- 
versal among men. Newby did not object. He 
doubtless thought, if he had any thoughts on the 
subject, that " the rose by any other name would 
smell as sweet," and that "Rickety Dan" was 
as good a name to conjure with as "Crazy Jack," 
or any other. In fact, he found himself more 
noticed and better fed under that name, and so 
allowed himself to be called " Rickety Dan," and 
called himself " Rickety Dan." The " Rickety" 
was dropped, and " Benton " added when away 
from home, or when legal or polite consideration 
required it. 

It is a strange coincidence, of course, that 
Newby and Benton should have had the same 
rickety manner of locomotion, but this we are 
not expected to account for. 

That Newby should have wandered into the 
vicinity, and received and adopted the name 
Dan Benton in the absence of the individual 
himself, is not a thing too wonderful to believe. 

The heart of the whole mystery lies in this 
question : Did the prisoner and Lydia Benton 



DAN BENTON. 127 

claim the relationship of mother and son, and, 
if so, was it true? 

We have shown how, in a very natural way, 
Newby might be in the neighborhood, and be 
called Dan Benton. If this much is capable of 
one reasonable solution, it is capable of others. 
But the question. How can the prisoner be Wil- 
liam Newby and the son of I^ydia Benton? is 
simply a contradiction of terms. 

Taking up Newby where we left him, in the 
neighborhood where he had tarried on account 
of the name, the fame, and the attention he 
had received, it is reasonable to suppose that 
he would find his way to the hut or home of 
Lydia Benton. She lived near the highway, 
and would naturally be anxious to see the person 
who was nicknamed after her unfortunate boy, 
and who was afflicted in the same way. Her 
own boy had wandered away during the war, 
and what is more rational than to suppose that 
this natural object of pity should receive more 
than common kindness in the way of sympathy, 
food, and good treatment at her hands for the 
sake of the boy whose absence made her days 
lonely and her pillow hard at night ? In short, 
as long as Newby staid around there it is not 
unreasonable to suppose " she treated him like 



128 WiLlvIAM NEWBY. 

a mother." Fully convinced as I am that the 
person is Newby, I am of the opinion that some- 
thing of this kind is all the relationship that 
ever existed between Lydia Benton and the 
prisoner. 

It is said that while he was in the penitentiary 
she called to see him, and that he sent her to- 
bacco. It is also known that when he escaped 
she sent him back to prison, which she might 
consistently have thought best to do if he was 
an old, crazy, tramp acquaintance, whom she 
could not keep about her, and whose continued 
presence was likely to annoy and compromise 
her, but what she would not have done had he 
been her son. This, and his action in going 
straight away from home over into Indiana when 
released from prison, indicates that he was aware 
that he had "worn out his welcome " at Lydia's 
and proposed to cut the acquaintance. Certain 
it is that he never went there, nor has he been 
there since ; and, moreover, as stated before, he 
never called her " mother" while in the prison. 

That there has been a great mistake some- 
where is admitted on all hands, and might it not 
have been made at this place as easily as any 
other? 

I admit the possibility, I even think it reason- 



DAN BENTON. 1 29 

able to suppose, that Newby was in that neigh- 
borhood just after the war; that he was called 
Dan Benton, and that Lydia Benton treated him 
like a mother. Now suppose this to be the real 
truth of this old matter of twenty or twenty-five 
years' standing. Suppose a government detective 
should learn from penitentiary people and from 
Newby himself that he had served a long term 
at Nashville under the name of Allen Lewis, 
alias Dan Benton. Suppose he. should go to 
Nashville and find that the man had received 
this name in that neighborhood from his resem- 
blance to one Dan Benton, who was formerly 
known there, but who went away about the be- 
ginning of the war. Suppose he should discover 
that the mother of Dan Benton knew this man, 
and had kindly relations with him for a time — 
in short, as stated above, that the man had been 
called Dan Benton in that neighborhood, and 
that Lydia Benton had, in times past, treated 
him like a mother. 

Armed with the potent authority of the gov- 
ernment ; with money more than enough for 
board ; inspired by the prospect of the gain, 
notoriety, and renown which a brilliant stroke 
of detective work would bring him ; aided by the 
uncertainty caused by the lapse of time, and the 



130 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

distracting effects of war; the task rendered 
easier by the contempt in which the old prison 
menial was held in the community, and the re- 
ligious hatred of ex-Confederates towards the 
policy of granting pensions to Northern soldiers ; 
the unwillingness of men to see good fortune 
come to those whom they have considered their 
inferiors ; and armed with authority to offer a 
magnificent excursion to the North at reduced 
rates, with good pay attached — with all these in- 
centives and advantages, and with the persua- 
sive powers of the average life insurance man, 
could or would he have persuaded these honest 
people along the Granny White Pike to honestly 
conclude that the man who came back after the 
war " looked like," " was treated like," " was 
like," yea, WAS the real^ original, identical Dan 
Benton ? 

The reader who has a taste for the strange 
and romantic, may find much food for conjecture 
in this wonderful case. It seems incredible that 
a large body of people should be absolutely mis- 
taken as to a matter of fact and personal obser- 
vation, but in this case one of two, or even three, 
large bodies of people is certainly mistaken. As 
to which is in error, the reader, from a careful 
perusal of the evidence, may be able to deter- 
mine. 



DAN BENTON. I31 

As for myself, I start out with the full convic- 
tion that the prisoner is Newby, from the appear- 
ance of the man, and from conversations that I 
have had with him. Though I may weigh 
and measure the adverse testimony and ponder 
over the theory of the government, yet the con- 
viction comes back with full force, " the man is 
Newby, and can be no one else." 

I conclude, simply, that the man was not killed 
at Shiloh, and that he was carried away, as he 
says he was, to Belle Isle. That some time 
after Andersonville was established, which was 
November 27, 1863, he was removed to that 
place, as stated by the seven witnesses who saw 
him there. When he was released, and of the 
history of his wanderings, we know nothing. 
The idea of his coming into the Sawyer settle- 
ment, advanced heretofore in this chapter, is 
purely hypothetical, and suggestive only of what 
might have taken place, and how he might have 
gotten the name of Daniel Benton. There 
seems to have been a slow but gradual dawning 
of the light in his mind, one idea a year perhaps, 
as evidenced by the successive interviews with 
Peter Fair. 

There is a curious feature connected with the 
bent of this man's mind. The judge, in his in- 



132 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

instructions to the jury, made the charge against 
Newby, in effect, that he ought to have gone to 
his home instead of staying in the poorhouse in 
Indiana. It seems that the man had some dim 
perception of a home and his mother. He often 
spoke of both, and referred to them as being in 
Florida. He remembered he had a mother once, 
for he had labored, when a boy, to support her. 
Both the women who testified against him 
stated that he spoke to them of going to his 
mother and his home in Florida, but, though he 
seemed to have some vague conception of it, he 
was never able to get there. 

The associations with Hannah Stewart, and 
the birth of the two children, perhaps had a 
tendency to arouse some dormant recollections of 
his earlier domestic life. He seemed to be drift- 
ing westward, and had gotten as far as the Ten- 
nessee River, some sixty miles below Shiloh, 
and within a hundred miles of home, when he 
was sentenced for stealing the horse. Then 
came the long term in the penitentiary. The 
quiet of those years, the outside work, such as 
the handling of cows, and other light labor sug- 
gestive of duties about the farm, doubtless had 
the effect of improving his mind. At any rate, 
by the time he reached Indiana in 1889, he was 



DAN BENTON. I33 

able to give, and did give, a fuller account of 
himself. 

His vague idea of a home in Florida began to 
give place to a more definite idea of his home in 
Illinois. In the same year his conception of the 
truth became strong enough to lead him vaguely, 
and finally brought him to Illinois, and under 
the observation of some of the men who knew 
him in days long gone by. 

From this point the story has already been 
told. 

Having been induced by his old friends and 
comrades to apply for a pension, an agent of the 
o^overnment was set to work on the case. The 
special agent McBride, when put upon the case, 
as before stated, followed back the story as 
Newby was able to relate it, through poorhouse 
and prison, got in among the Sawyers and their 
relatives, who were employes at the prison, and 
some of whom served time. From these he 
learned the story of "Rickety Dan" Benton, 
and set to work to connect the two. He came 
to White County, and, under the pretense of 
further identification, gets the consent of the old 
wife and sons of Newby to let him go to Ten- 
nessee. Newby was willing to go anywhere for 
the purpose of having his identity established, 



134 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

"for," said he, "if I ain't Newby, who in the 
Lell am I? " 

The writer was on the train when he was being 
taken away. He went voluntarily, for I talked 
with him and the agent both, and McBride said 
that it was a great point in favor of the genuine- 
ness of Newby's claim that he was willing to go 
anywhere and to confront anybody. 

The old man was taken down there, and, of 
course, he was known to those who served in the 
penitentiary under any capacity. He told Lem 
Sawyer that if he took him back to jail that he 
would kill him if he went to hell for it. Mc- 
Bride put him on exhibition — put him through 
his gaits. " Yes," everybody said, " it's the fel- 
low that was in the penitentiary — he has the 
same rickety walk." Old man Wooten, who had 
not seen "Rickety Dan" since he put him in the 
poorhouse, did not recognize him until the agent 
walked the old cripple up and down, and then 
he was prepared to come to Springfield and 
swear it was " Rickety Dan." 

When a sufficient number of people were se- 
cured who would swear that it was not Newby, 
he was brought back to Illinois, and, instead of 
being restored to his home, as the promise was, 
he was taken to Springfield and thrown into jail 



DAN BENTON. 135 



as an impostor. It is said that the agent claims 
as an excuse for his acting in bad faith with the 
old man, that he promised not to bring him back 
home, but to "bring him back to IlUnois," a 
subterfuge which when played upon a crazy man 
and a crazy man's family is beneath the con- 
tempt of any fair-minded person. 

It will be well to remark that by working 
secretly, as is the manner of United States de- 
tectives, this " Dan Benton " theory was sprung 
upon the friends of Newby at a time when they 
had neither the time nor the means to investigate, 
but that efforts are being made to the end that 
the truth, wherever it lies, may be determined. 



136 WILLIAM NEWBY. 



THE LAWYERS. 

WILLIAM E. SHUTT. 

William E. Shutt, present United States At- 
torney for this district, assisted by the Hon. John 
G. Drennen, represented the government in the 
prosecution of this case. Mr. Shutt was born in 
in Loudon County, Va., is about fifty years old, 
and has been practicing law at Springfield since 
1863. First was member of the firm of Robinson, 
Napp & Shutt; since in the firm composed of 
United States Senator Palmer and son, with him- 
self. At present the firm is Palmer, Shutt & 
Drennen. Mr. Shutt has enjoyed some of the 
honors of politics. He was twelve years state 
senator, and one term mayor of his own city of 
Springfield. He possesses many types of a 
model son of the Old Dominion. A giant in 
physical appearance, of fine form and presence. 
In his management of a case he both drives and 
coaxes. He has a fine sense of duty, and in this 
case exerted all the powers he possessed to con- 
vict his man. 



THE LAWYERS. I37 

JOHN G. DRENNEN. 

Jolin G. Drennen was born December 3, 1856, 
in Caldwell County, Ky., and came to Illinois 
when a boy. He has been practicing law since 
1880. Was State's Attorney of Christian County 
from 1880 to 1888, and was master in chancery 
for the same county. Mr. Drennen, as you see, 
has been eating plums most of the years since 
his admission to the bar. At present he resides 
in Springfield. John is a typical Kentuckian, 
except he has no broad-brimmed-hat foolishness 
about him. He is generous, kind and good- 
looking. He is sharp as lightning, makes points 
or sees them quickly, and has the faculty of 
making the jury see them as he does. He is 
very swift. You would like him. Old Newby 
was almost sharp enough to fear Drennen when 
he got before that jury. 

The claimant was ably defended by J. R. 
Creighton, E. C. Kramer, George W. Johns, and 
E. S. Robinson. 

J. R. CREIGHTON. 

Mr. Creighton was born in White County, 111., 
forty-four years ago, and has been practicing law 
eighteen years in Fairfield, Wayne County, and 



138 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

adjoining counties. He was candidate for at- 
torney general on the ticket with Gen. Palmer, 
and is well known in Illinois. He i^ a brother 
of Judge James A. Creighton, of Springfield. 
Mr. Creighton is an almost invincible defender 
of a man charged with crime, contests closely, 
pushes the fight, covers his retreat, and some- 
times sallies forth with great power. 

COL. GEO. W. JOHNS 

Was born in Albion, Edwards County, 111., is 
forty-five years old, and was admitted to the bar 
in 1870. He located first at Carmi, but came to 
Fairfield in 1873, where he has since remained. 
Mr. Johns is a good lawyer and a safe counselor, 
worthy the confidence which people repose in 
him. He is public-spirited, and a benefit to the 
community in which he lives. 

E. C. KRAMER. 

E. C. Kramer was born in Wabash County, 
111., and came to Wayne County when a boy. 
He is thirty years old, and has been practicing 
law eight years. He has been county judge one 
term. At present he is one of the commissioners 
of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary. He is well 
and favorably known. He is a bright, solid man, 
a good lawyer, and enjoys a good practice. 



THE LAWYERS. 1 39 

E. S. ROBINSON 

Was born in Fairfield, 111., and is twenty -five 
years old. Has been practicing law three years 
at Springfield, 111. He is a son of the Hon. Wm. 
H. Robinson, deceased, who fi^r many years was 
on the board of railroad and warehouse commis- 
sioners. Ned had charge of the preparation of 
the case at the capital. He is an industrious, 
honest, competent young lawyer of much promise. 

It may be said of this case that no case was 
ever tried in any court that excited more com- 
ment by the psess of the country, and more 
intense interest by the people in general, than 
the Newby case. No, not in all history. Inch 
by inch it was contested. Unequal — only an 
old, demented, crippled, impoverished man to 
cope with a great government like the United 
States in the contest. Yet was the principle in- 
volved, " Is he Newby or is he Benton?" 

One of the most competent special examiners, 
Mr. McBride, was put upon this case by the 
government, with all the time and money neces- 
sary at his command. Well did he push the 
prosecution. A scapegoat must be had, and Dan 
Benton, the " great Unaccountable," was fur- 



140 WiLIvIAM NEWBY. 

nished as an imaginary, whose trifling life from 
his birth must be apologized for by poor old 
Newby, in his demented condition, for which he 
is no more responsible than was the unfortunate 
scapegoat for the anathemas thrust upon him for 
his misfortunes — born rickety, and with a 
wobbling gait the only analogy. 

JAMES MC'CARTNEY. 

Mr. McCartney was born in Trumbull County, 
Ohio, in the year 1835. He studied law with 
Judge Burchard, of Warren, and when admitted, 
moved to Galva, Henry County, 111. Here he 
entered the army early in 1861 in one of the first 
Illinois regiments, and remained with it until 
the close of hostilities. On his return from the 
army he removed from Galva and came to Fair- 
field, in Wayne County, in 1866. Here he con- 
tinued to practice his profession with much suc- 
cess until elected attorney general of the state 
ten years ago. This position he filled with 
honor to himself and to the satisfaction of the 
people of the state. The General now lives in 
Chicago, and follows his profession, his office 
being in the Unity Building. 

Upon hearing the astonishing verdict in the 
Newby case, Gen. McCartney at once tendered his 



THE LAWYERS. 14! 

services to assist his poor, unfortunate neighbor 
to get a new trial, or to press the case to the 
highest court in the land for review. Mr. Mc- 
Cartney is in the case to stay, and this without 
fee or reward, except the reward that comes from 
such an act prompted by so pure a motive. 



CHAPTER VI 1 1. 

THE TRIAI.. 

f~\^ Saturday, April 29, 1893, the claimant, 
^-^ William Newby, was taken to Springfield 
by Thomas H. McBride, special pension exam- 
iner, and there placed under arrest and lodged 
in jail, upon a charge of " presenting a fraudu- 
lent pension claim." His family and friends in 
White, Wayne, and Edwards Counties were noti- 
fied of his arrest, and at once commenced pre- 
paring for his defense. Newby remained in jail 
until May 20, when he was released on two 
thousand dollars bond. 

At the June term of the United States Dis- 
trict Court the claimant was indicted by the 
grand jury under the name of Daniel Benton, 
alms William Newby, on three charges, viz., 
presenting a fraudulent pension claim, perjury, 
and making false affidavit in pension claim, and 
his trial was set for July 11. 

143 



144 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

In the meantime his relatives and friends in 
the southern part of the state were busy hunting 
evidence and raising money to pay the expenses 
of his defense. Owing to the poverty of the 
defendant, and the general hard times, but a few 
hundred dollars was raised, and the defense was 
badly handicapped in preparing for the trial on 
account of insufficient funds. The trial was to 
be held in Springfield, nearly one hundred and 
fifty miles from the home of Newby and his 
neighbors. There was railroad fare, and board 
while in Springfield, to pay in cash, and also the 
time that the witnesses were away from their 
various occupations, to take into consideration. 
The government would furnish the defendant 
but ten witnesses, and they must live in Illinois. 
He needed about two hundred, some of the most 
important of whom lived in Arkansas, Missouri, 
Indiana, and other states. To obtain all these 
witnesses would necessitate an expenditure of 
perhaps three thousand dollars. 

The defendant's family and friends were able 
to raise only about one fifth of that amount, and, 
as a natural consequence, he had to go to trial 
without many of his most important witnesses. 

Although it was very hot and dusty and most 
unpleasant to travel on the day before the nth, 



THE TRIAL. 145 

one hundred and fifty of Newby's old friends 
and neighbors went to Springfield at their own 
expense to testify in his behalf. 

Notwithstanding the intense heat, the large 
United States court-room was crowded to over- 
flowing long before court time, by an expectant 
audience, anxious to hear every word of this 
wonderful case. 

The Springfield daily papers had been filled 
for weeks with articles about the case, all assum- 
ing the defendant to be an impostor, and a strong 
prejudice had been worked up against him. 

It is safe to say that everybody in Springfield 
who had read the papers believed him to be a 
fraud. This opinion underwent a great change 
before the trial was concluded, and public senti- 
ment was almost unanimously changed in favor 
of the defendant. 

The government was represented by United 
States District Attorney W. E. Shutt and Hon. 
John G. Drennen, law partner of Senator John 
M. Palmer. 

The defendant's attorneys were Hon. Jacob 
R. Creighton, Judge E. C. Kramer, and Col. 
George W. Johns, of Fairfield, 111., and E. S. 
Robinson, of Springfield. Judge J. W. Allen 
presided on the bench. 



146 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

When court was opened, both the prosecution 
and defense announced their readiness for trial, 
and, after the usual preliminary motions, etc., 
the work of selecting a jury was begun, which 
occupied all the morning and part of the after- 
noon. 

After the jury was selected, Mr. Shutt made 
the opening statement for the prosecution in an 
hour's address. 

Mr. Shutt said that the defendant was an im- 
postor from beginning to end. That he was not 
William Newby, and never heard of William 
Newby until the spring of 1891, when he hap- 
pened to be in Hamilton County, 111., and heard 
of the death of William Newby at Shiloh, and 
then concluded to perpetrate this fraud, intimat- 
ing that there was someone behind the defend- 
ant assisting him in the plot. On the contrary, 
he was a Tennessee adventurer, named Daniel 
Benton, who was born in his present crippled 
condition, and, from his walk, was always known 
as " Rickety Dan." He would trace him, step 
by step, from the time he was a very small child, 
only four or five years of age, in Williamson 
County in 1849, until the present time, never 
skipping more than a year or two of his life at a 
time. He said the government would trace him 



THE TRIAL. ' 147 

from the time he left Williamson County in 1862 
or '64, year by year, until 1877, when he was sent 
to the Tennessee state penitentiary from Benton 
County for horse-stealing, where he remained as 
a prisoner until 1889, when he was discharged, 
having served out his time, and would show, be- 
yond any question of doubt, by a large array of 
witnesses that this defendant was no other, and 
could be no other, than Daniel Benton. He 
would also account for the so-called severe in- 
jury on the side of his head by proving that he 
received that by being struck by the rebound of 
a wagon-bow in Tennessee in about 1861 or '62. 
Moreover, he would prove, to the satisfaction of 
everyone, that William Newby was killed at the 
battle of Shiloh, and his body afterwards buried, 
and, no difference who this defendant is, he can 
not be Bill Newby. 

Mr. Shutt, during his address, became greatly 
excited, and, turning to the large array of de- 
fendant's witnesses, said that he would convince 
every one of them, before the government's evi- 
dence was concluded, that the defendant was a 
colossal fraud, playing upon the credulities of the 
people, and that they had been basely imposed 
upon. 

Mr. Creighton followed Mr. Shutt for the de- 



148 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

fense. He said tlie defense would introduce scores 
of William Newby's relatives and old neighbors, 
who were intimate with him before the war, and 
many of his army comrades, who positively iden- 
tify the defendant as the original William Newby. 
That ninety-nine out of every hundred of his old 
friends who had made any effort to test this man 
knew beyond any question of doubt that he was 
none other than their old friend and comrade. 
His old mother, now ninety-one years of age, 
who brought him into this world, had come here 
through the dust and heat to testify for her son. 
His wife, who had shared his every thought in 
their lonely log home for many long years, and 
had borne him six children, and mortgaged her 
home, and, together with their children, had 
come to help this poor old physical and mental 
wreck, whom they knew to be husband and 
father. It was not a question of pension with 
them, for the pension department, in its wisdom, 
had long since refused to grant the defendant 
any pension. It was a question of whether or 
not their husband and father, who had left home 
and family to answer to his country's call, and 
had a thousand times more than given his life 
in its service, should now be locked up in a 
felon's cell for attempting, in his old age, to ob- 
tain a small recompense for his services. 



THE TRIAL. 149 

It would also be shown by the defense that 
this defendant was, for many months, confined 
in that southern hell, Andersonville prison, as a 
prisoner of war. He was totally insane while 
there, rotten with the scurvy, and covered with 
vermin. It is no wonder that his mind was a 
wreck, and that he did not return home sooner. 
Many old soldiers, who had never heard of Bill 
Newby, will tell you that they knew this defend- 
ant in Andersonville, and that he was there 
known as "Crazy Jack," a poor object of pity, 
even among all that miserable crowd of prison- 
ers. 

It will be shown to you that in the same regi- 
ment that Bill Newby belonged to there was a 
soldier named Hiram Morris, who was, in size 
and appearance, very much like William Newby ; 
in fact, his muster-roll fits that of Newby. 
Hiram Morris was in that famous charge at 
the battle of Shiloh on Sunday morning. He 
was reported missing after that charge, and he 
has never been heard of since. His widow still 
lives near William Newby's old home, and could 
never obtain a pension because she could not 
prove his death. The bodies of those killed that 
Sunday morning were left in the hot southern 
sun until Tuesday evening, when they were 



150 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

hurriedly buried by tlieir comrades. Their 
bodies were swollen and black. It would be 
hard to tell one person from another in that con- 
dition, and, in the hurry of the burial, made a 
mistake and buried the body of Hiram Morris 
for William Newby. Newby's comrades, at that 
battle, saw him receive a gun-shot wound in the 
right thigh. Also a wound in the left side of 
the head, caused by a piece of a shell. This de- 
fendant has the scars left by those wounds. 

Moreover, the defense will introduce every 
physician who has examined the defendant, in- 
cluding five physicians whom the government 
had examine him, and they will tell you that 
this defendant never had the rickets, that he 
was a mature man before he became a cripple. 
Also, that the scar in his head was left by a 
wound that has injured his skull, and affects his 
mind and memory. He can not be Daniel Ben- 
ton, then, who was crippled from birth, and 
suffered from the disease known as " rickets " 
all his life. 

William Newby had a long scar on his right 
foot, caused by a broadaxe; another on his shin, 
where he was kicked by a colt, and another on 
the left arm, left there from a severe bite which 
he received in a figfht. He also had two moles 



THE TRIAL. 151 

on his face, one near the right eye, the other on 
the right side of his upper Hp. 

This defendant has all those scars and those 
two moles. 

As the reader will discover, there were three 
lines on which the government introduced testi- 
mony. First, that the defendant is Daniel Ben- 
ton ; second, that William Newby was killed at 
Shiloh, and, whoever this defendant is, he can 
not be WilHam Newby. Third, relatives and 
neighbors who knew William Newby have seen 
this man, and, whether Newby was killed at 
Shiloh or not, claimant is not Newby. 

The defense had four branches. First, the 
defendant is William Newby ; second, it was 
Hiram Morris, killed at Shiloh, and not William 
Newby ; third, the defendant was a prisoner of 
war in Anderson ville prison, known as " Crazy 
Jack," and was then about thirty-eight or forty 
years old, and therefore can not be the original 
Dan Benton, who was but a boy during the 
war ; fourth, the defendant never had the rick- 
ets, and was a mature man before he became a 
cripple, and therefore can not be Dan Benton, 
who was crippled from birth, and was always 
afflicted with the rickets. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Creighton's addres? 



152 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

the government introduced two witnesses, A. M. 
Wilson and J. H. Upchnrch, of McLeansboro, 
111., to prove the making of the affidavit by the 
defendant. Both thought he was of sound mind 
at the time of making the application. 

John Sawyer, of Tennessee, aged eighty-five, 
was the first important witness introduced. He 
said that he first became acquainted with the 
defendant, who was known as Dan Banton, 
not Benton, in Williamson County, Tenh., where 
he lived in 1859, when Dan was a small boy. 
He was then afflicted with the rickets, and crip- 
pled the same way he is now. He was known 
as "Rickety Dan," from his physical condition. 
Knew him up till a year or so after the war com- 
menced, when he left that country. He was 
then a young boy. Next saw him in the Ten- 
neessee state penitentiary in about 1880, where 
I was a guard and defendant was a prisoner. 
Positive this is the boy raised in Williamson 
County. 

Mrs. Bettie Fudge, daughter of John Sawyer, 
gave her age as forty-eight. Went to school 
with Dan Benton, or Banton, when both were 
little children. Knew him until during the war, 
when he was twelve to fifteen years old. Did 
not see Dan after early part of war until the 



THE TRIAI<. 153 

summer of 1868, when he passed her house on 
Granny White's Pike, Avith two women. He 
then looked to be thirty years old. Next saw 
him, about 1884, in penitentiary at Nashville. 
Defendant is, undoubtedly, Dan Banton. 

W. K. McDowell, Williamson County, Tenn., 
aged forty-four, knew Dan Benton four or five 
years before the war. Witness was five or six 
years old when he first became acquainted with 
him, and Dan was about ten. Knew him until 
the war, when Dan left there. Next saw him 
in 1868, with two women, on Granny White's 
Pike. Did not speak to him then — merely 
passed him on the road. Dan looked about 
thirty years old then. Next saw him this spring, 
when McBride took him to Tennessee. Did 
not recognize him until McBride said it was Dan 
Benton. No doubt as to identity. 

Willis Sawyer, Mrs. Angelina Sawyer, Rich- 
ard M. McDaniel, Thos. S. Waller, Wm. J. 
Gresham, James W. Talkington, J. B. McCrory, 
Riley Alley, Robert D. Waller, all testified to 
having known Dan Benton, or Banton, when he 
was a small child, up till 1862 or '63, when he 
was twelve to fifteen years old. He was always 
crippled. Had rickets, and was known as 
" Rickety Dan." They all saw him in 1868, 



154 WIIvLIAM NEWBY. 

walking along Granny White's Pike with two 
women. Did not speak to him. He appeared 
to be about thirty years old. 

Moreover, it was later shown by the prosecu- 
tion that the defendant did not know the two 
women in question until late in the fall of 1872; 
that they were in Indiana until the fall of 1873, 
and could not have been in Tennessee until the 
summer of 1874, or later. The writer is unable 
to understand why these positive witnesses all 
agreed upon the summer of 1868 as being the 
time when they saw Dan Benton on Granny 
White's Pike, and yet all are at least six years 
mistaken. 

Washington Bonds, of Nashville, Tenn., aged 
forty-seven, knew Dan Benton when both were 
small boys. " Saw him in 1861 at my father's 
house. He wasn't doing anything, just happened 
to come. Saw him in 1865 about a mile from 
Hillsboro, riding a mare. He had on a dark 
suit. Saw him in 1867 or '68 on Granny White's 
Pike, between seven and eight miles from Nash- 
ville. He was going north. I asked him where 
he was going. He said he was going back to 
Illinois. I called him Dan. He called me 
Wash. I next saw him in prison at Nash- 
ville, about twelve or fourteen years ago." 



THE TRIAI.. 155 

Question by Attorney : "How long have you 
lived in Nashville ? " 

Answer : "I think about fourteen years." 
" Did you ever move away from Tennessee? " 
"Yes, I moved to Texas, I think in 1870, but 
do not know." 

Willis Sawyer, Jos. Talkington, Edward Wells, 
J. W. Alley, Thos. S. Waller, James W. Talking- 
ton, Wm. J. Sawyer, Lem Sawyer and Richard 
McDaniel all saw defendant in the penetentiary 
at Nashville between 1880 and 1889, and posi- 
tively identify him as the original Dan Benton, 
whom they knew as a small boy. 

Walter P. Alley, Nashville, Tennessee, aged 
forty-six, "knew Dan Benton when both were 
small boys. Dan was helping bend a wagon-bow 
at my father's blacksmith- shop about 1861. 
Some one let loose of the bow, and it rebounded, 
striking Dan on the left side of the head, making 
a deep wound. Dan was then about thirteen 
years old. Wound healed rapidly, and caused 
him no trouble. The bow was sixteen feet long, 
six inches wide, and one half inch thick. Dan 
was always 'rickety.' Walks better now than 
he did then. Have never seen him since, until 
the present time. Didn't know his last name. 
Positive defendant is the same person." 



156 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

J. W. Alley, Frank C. Holly, and James H. 
Alley also testified to seeing Dan Benton receive 
a wound by wagon-bow striking him. 

Robert H. Hill, Williamson County, Tenn., 
"saw Dan Benton at Lem Sawyer's once during 
the war, some time during the war, I think, 
about 1864. Had a short conversation with 
him. He was then about fifteen years old. Never 
spoke to him but that once. Have never seen 
him since, until present time." 

Question; "Have you any doubts that this 
defendant is Dan Benton?" 

Answer: " None in the world, sir." 

Robert A. Read, Walter P. Alley, Frank C. 
Holly, Thomas Buntham, James H. Alley, 
George Mayfield, Wm. Callender, and G. W. 
Morgan, all knew Dan Benton from a few years 
before the war until about 1862. Have never 
seen him since, until the present time. Have no 
doubt the defendant is Dan Benton. 

Andrew Wooton, Williamson County, Tenn, 
" Born and raised there. Lived a few years in 
White County, 111., Dan Banton with me and my 
mother. Moved back to Tennessee, but don't 
know when. Dan and his mother went to Ten- 
nessee with me. I knew him four or five years 
before the war, in Tennessee. I took Dan to 



THE TRIAI,. 157 

the Williamson County poorfarm before the war. 
Never saw him afterwards until the spring of 
1893, when McBride brought him to my house. 
McBride asked me if I knew this man, I said 
I thought maybe I did, but asked McBride to let 
him walk. After he walked I said, ' It is Dan 
Benton,' Dan did not recognize me." 

This ended the Tennessee witnesses, and Peter 
R, Farr, a crippled but very intelligent inmate 
of the Pike County, Ind,, poorfarm, was next 
placed on the stand. He testified in substance 
as follows : 

" I have been in the Pike County poorfarm 
twenty-five years. First saw the defendant in 
in latter part of 1868, when he came to the poor- 
farm. Defendant then gave his name as Allen 
Lewis. He staid some time and left, but came 
back in 1870, and said his name was Dan Ben- 
ton. He again returned in 1872 as Dan Benton, 
and again in the spring of 1874, under the name 
of Dan Benton. He staid about five weeks the 
last time, and went away with Hannah Stewart, 
an inmate of the poorfarm. He then staid away 
until the spring of 1889, when he returned, and 
said he had been in the Tennessee penitentiary. 
He told me in the spring of 1889 that he was 
known as Dan Benton, Allen Allen, Allen Lewis, 



158 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

and John Baker, that he used to be called " Crazy 
Jack," and over in Illinois used to be known 
as Bill Newby." 

This witness was a surprise and a disappoint- 
ment to the prosecution, as it maintained that 
the defendant never heard of Newby until the 
spring of 1891. He was recalled by the defense, 
and proved a very valuable witness, as will be 
shown later. 

Hannah Stewart "first met defendant about 
twenty-one years ago in the Pike County, Ind., 
poorfarm. He was then known as Dan Benton. 
Left the poorfarm with Dan in 1873. Then had 
one son by my husband, Stewart. That son is 
a cripple. I am crippled. I traveled with de- 
fendant about five years. Had two children by 
him. One is dead. The other is present. He 
is a boy. Is crippled and subject to fits. It was 
over a year after we left the poorfarm until we 
got to Tennessee. While in Tennessee, had 
another woman with us." 

Several other witnesses from various points in 
Indiana and Ohio tried to prove that defendant 
was in poorhouses throughout those two states 
under the name of Dan Benton. 

This concluded the first and most important 
branch of the prosecution. Two witnesses tes- 



THE TRIAI^. 159 

tified that they had seen Newby dead after the 
battle of Shiloh, and helped bury his remains. 
Their evidence is important, and, no doubt, will 
be interesting to the reader. 

W. H. Merritt, farmer, Wayne County, 111.: 
" Knew William Newby for about five years 
before the war, living six miles from him. Be- 
longed to the same company in the army. Newby 
joined the company at Camp Butler, near Spring- 
field, 111. Saw him at Camp Butler, Jefferson 
Barracks, Cairo, Bird's Point; and Shiloh. Newby 
was a big man, with round face, fat hands. De- 
fendant has no resemblance to Newby except in 
the eyes. Dr. R. H. Maricle and I were not in 
the battle of Shiloh after the beginning of the 
first charge, but were in the rear, and were cap- 
tured by the Confederates. Were afterwards re- 
captured by the Federal army. G. J. George, 
orderly sergeant. Company D, told me that 
Newby was dead. I was detailed to help bury 
the dead late Monday evening. Found Newby s 
body, and buried it. He was shot in the fore- 
head, just over one eye." 

Dr. R. H. Maricle, White County, 111., phy- 
sician and farmer. "Acquainted with Newby 
from childhood. In the same company in the 
army. Saw him every day in the company. 



l6o WILLIAM NEWBY. 

Was detailed at Shiloh to help bury the dead of 
Company D. Was informed that Newby was 
killed Sunday morning, and when we went to 
bury the bodies, saw Newby's body. Helped lay 
his body in the trench, then cut the names of 
those who were buried on a board, and put it at 
the head of the trench. Nothing about the de- 
fendant that resembles Newby. Don't think de- 
fendant is him. Newby was of heavy build, 
large bones, good-sized face, biggest fist I ever 
saw, hair dark brOwn, beard lighter than hair, 
hazel eyes, fair complexion, short neck, short 
fingers. 

Cross examination : " Buried the bodies on 
Tuesday evening." 

The following letter was then submitted to the 
witness : 

Mill Shoals, III., April 21, 1891. 
Mrs. Ferby Newby., Claud ^ Texas. 

On or about April 9, 1862, I wrote to you 
from Shiloh, Tenn,, that your husband, William 
Newby, was killed on April 6, 1862 (now a little 
over twenty-nine years ago), stating what I felt 
were positive facts in the case, and which I 
would certify to in any court every day since 
that time until now. I told you just how I had 



THE TRIAL. l6l 

him laid down by Uncle Adam Files, and had 
his name cut on a pine board, with a spear 
pointing to position he occupied in the soldier 
grave. I also cut the names of Adam Files, 
Hollo way Beard, Eustrich Willit, John Raner, 
and Hamilton Farmer. As you are aware that 
a man has been identified and is now at home 
with his family and brothers as the identical 
WilHam Newby, of Company D, 40th Illinois 
Infantry Volunteers, and not until I visited him 
the third time could I be reconciled that he was 
the man that I supposed I had helped to bury 
over twenty-nine years ago, although the evi- 
dence of his identity was preponderous. Come 
home and see him, and be convinced what your 
friends have been wiring and writing to you 
about is straight goods. You need not expect 
him to look just as he did on August 8, 1861, 
when him and I, with the rest of our brothers, 
neighbors and friends, bid farewell to those who 
were near and dear to us, and went out to defend 
the stars and stripes, which our forefathers had 
declared should wave over the land of the free 
and the home of the brave, which had been torn 
down by traitors, and our Union people mur- 
dered outright. Everything points to proofs 
which are undeniable, but there is a great 



1 62 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

change in his looks, of course, but, according 
to his statement, hs has been in those prison 
dens which human tongue can not describe, 
and, after the close of the war, was held or pro- 
hibited from coming home to keep him from 
getting a pension, and was compelled, under the 
lash, to vote the rebel ticket. No wonder, then, 
there is such a change in his looks. His scars 
all conform to the identity of him, both those he 
had when he enlisted, and those he got in the 
army. He has only los't one tooth, and that is 
the back jaw-tooth on the upper jaw and the 
right side. I want to tell you, Ferby, it was 
hard for me to be convinced, but now I am satis- 
fied, and hope you will not think hard of me for 
writing the letter of his death, identity, and 
burial, April 9, 1862, and I don't want to put 
any more wooden tombstones to soldiers' graves 
after making such a blunder as I and the rest 
of the comrades did; and now I congratulate you 
on the privilege of seeing your husband, who was 
so devoted to you. I am, as ever. 

Your friend, 

R. H. MariclE. 

Question : " Did you write the letter ? " 
Answer: "Yes, sir." 



THE TRIAL. 163 

" How many times had you seen and talked 
with defendant before you wrote the letter?" 

" I wrote it after about the fourth time I had 
visited him." 

" Did you then believe it was Newby ? " 

" Yes, sir, I think I did, but wrote the letter 
because I thought my pension and property was 
threatened." 

At the conclusion of Dr. Maricle's testimony, 
the prosecution took up the third branch of its 
case and introduced two brothers, one sister of 
Newby's, and twelve of his neighbors, who do 
not know of their own knowledge that he was 
killed, but do not recognize the defendant as 
Newby. 

None of these witnesses, except the brothers 
and sister, had paid much attention to the de- 
fendant, and merely said that they did not recog- 
nize him. They all agreed that defendant does 
not answer to the description of William Newby 
when he went into the army. They all de- 
scribed Newby as about five feet, eleven inches 
high, large frame, weight about one hundred and 
seventy pounds, rather slender hands, medium- 
sized face, ordinary neck, small, brown eyes, and 
almost black hair mixed with white. 

Carroll Newby, brother of William Newby, an 



164 WII.LIAM NEWBY. 

inmate of the Jefferson County poorhouse : "I 
am about seventy-one years old. My brother 
William would be about sixty-eight years if 
alive. The defendant came to Jefferson County 
poorfarm in February, 1890. He called himself 
Allen Benton. Said he lived in Florida, and had 
been in the Confederate army. Do not recog- 
nize him as brother Bill. He does not look like 
brother Bill used to." 

Mrs. Perlina Campbell, sister of William New- 
by : "I am affected with a disease in the head, 
and my memory has been spoiled. This man 
does not look like brother Bill. When the de- 
fendant first came to White County in the spring 
of 1 89 1 I went to see him several times, and 
talked to him and believed it was my brother, 
but do not now." 

Question ; " Do you remember of Bill cutting 
his foot badly with a broadaxe? " 

Answer: "Yes, have heard the family talk 
about it." 

" Do you remember of him being kicked on 
the shin by a colt, which left a large scar?" 

" Yes, sir, I think so." 

" Do you remember of him being bit on the 
arm in a fight ? " 

"I remember hearing the family talk about it." 



THE TRIAIv. 165 

Presley Newby, brother of William Newby : 
" Don't know age, but think about sixty-four. 
Don't think defendant is my brother. He does 
not look like Bill did. Bill had dark-auburn 
hair, and wore it long, and in summer the ends 
would sunburn, and make his hair look lighter. 
This man's hair is darker than Bill's was. My 
hair used to be red, but has turned dark. My 
hair used to be redder than Bill's (Presley now 
has dark-brown hair). Bill had small, brown 
eyes." 

Cross examination — Question : " When it was 
first reported in your neighborhood that Bill had 
returned did you not describe to Ki Newby how 
Bill ought to look, and tell him if it was Bill he 
would have a long scar on one foot, where he 
had been cut by a broadaxe, another on the shin 
caused by a colt kicking him, another on the 
arm, where he was bitten in a fight, and a mole 
on the right side of the upper lip ?" 

"I think I did. When I first saw defendant, 
did not believe it was Bill, but after talking to 
him thought he was, but now don't believe he 
is. When I first saw the defendant, I thought I 
would test him, and asked him if he had ever 
rafted any. He .said, ' Yes, brother Jim and I 
rafted on White River before the war. There 



l66 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

was an Irishman with us who died, and I started 
to shave him. While shaving him, the dead 
man threw up his arm, and I dropped the razor 
and run. Afterwards, while running our raft 
down the river, it broke in two, and we lost part 
of it.' All that had happened to brother Bill, 
but I thought I would question him further, and 
asked him if he had ever had any fights. He 
said, ' Yes, I had a fight with a man in Liberty 
once, and he bit me on the arm.' He then told 
about a fight he had in a meadow near there, 
naming the meadow. Bill had both of those 
fights." 

" Did you not tell John Powell, W. A. Jordan, 
and others, that the defendant was undoubtedly 
your brother? " 

" Yes, sir." 

" Did you not tell Thomas Allen and Joseph 
Creighton that it would pay Bill to give you 
about five hundred dollars? " 

" Yes, I believe I did." 




J. R. CREIGHTON. 



E. C. KRAMER. 

ATTORNEYS FOR 




GEO. W. JOHNS. 

THE DEFENSE. 



E. S. ROBINSON. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DEFENSE. 

T^AY by day, as the government presented its 
^^ evidence, the interest in the trial grew in 
intensity, and by Friday evening, when the gov- 
ernment closed, it was at an extremely high 
pitch. 

On Saturday morning it was announced in all 
the Springfield papers that the defense had be- 
gun, and long before time for court to convene 
that morning people were flocking to the Fed- 
eral building, and when Commissioner Kidd 
opened court at 8:30 o'clock every available foot 
of room was occupied. This intense interest 
continued throughout the trial, and after about 
the third day of the defense there was a com- 
plete revolution of public sentiment in favor of 
the claimant. 

Each day, from early morning until late at 
night, groups of people stood around discussing 
the events of the prosecution and defense. 

171 



172 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

Often the bebater became greatly excited, and 
often trouble was narrowly averted between the 
witnesses from Tennessee, many of whom had 
served under Gen. Forrest in the Confederate 
army, and the partisans of the claimant, a major- 
ity of whom had given years of their life to the 
Union. 

All the prejudices and bitterness of the late 
war were revived, and it seems remarkable to the 
author that the two weeks of the trial passed 
without trouble. 

This feeling ran so high, and the excitement 
became so great, that on Wednesday, the fourth 
day of the defense, the court placed two officers 
in charge of the jury, which heretofore had been 
allowed perfect freedom when not in the court- 
room, with orders not to allow the members to 
talk to anyone. 

Wherever the author would go, up and down 
the street, in the hotels, stores, and work-shops, 
he would hear the name of Newby. The claim- 
ant and his case seemed to be the sole topic of 
conversation in the capital city, and a familiar 
greeting on the street was, " Is he Newby or 
Benton? " 

There were one hundred and forty witnesses 
introduced for the defense. It would, of course, 



THE DEFENSE. 173 

be tedious to the reader to read the evidence of 
each witness, as most of them testified only upon 
one point, identifying the defendant as William 
Newby, whom they knew before and in the war. 
Newby's wife, his mother, a brother, two sisters, 
and seventeen other relatives positively identi- 
fied the claimant as William Newby. Seventy- 
six old neighbors and thirty-seven members of 
the 40th Regiment swore that he was William 
Newby beyond question of doubt. His relations, 
and many of the other witnesses, had known him 
for a great many years. A large number of 
these people had been connected with William 
Newby before the war, or in the army, in matters 
that were only known to the witness and William 
Newby. Each one had not only recognized the 
claimant as William Newby by his appearance 
and manner, but had applied severe tests to him. 
He was able to meet these tests to the satisfaction 
of every witness. 

C. C. Maulding, of Wayne County, was the 
first witness for the defense. " I was a member 
of Company D, 40th Illinois Infantry, the com- 
pany that William Newby belonged to. Knew 
Newby well in the army from about the 12th of 
August, 1 86 1, until the first day of the battle of 
Shiloh, April 6, 1862. Stood on guard with him 



174 WIIylvIAM NEWBY. 

several times. Was intimate with him. Was 
with him often. The first time I saw him after 
the battle of Shiloh was in February or March, 
1 99 1, in a hardware store at Wayne City. I 
could not identify him by merely seeing him, but 
did after talking to him. He told me incidents 
that had occurred between him and me. I think 
his mind is in a bad condition. I have no doubt 
that defendant is William Newby." 

John Haefle, merchant. Burnt Prairie, 111.: 
*' I was well acquainted with William Newby, 
from the spring of 1853 until he joined the army 
in 1861. I lived about four miles from Newby. 
He was then a large man, with dark complexion, 
dark eyes, and dark hair, nearly black. Neck 
in proportion to balance of his body. Pretty 
well developed through shoulders. He had an 
impediment in his speech, a sort of stutter, and 
a general Newby voice. He has the same pe- 
culiar voice and stutter now. I first saw Newby 
after he went to the war about a week after his 
return in 1891. Have seen him and talked with 
him several times." 

Question : " Is the defendant William Newby? " 

"Yes, sir, that is Bill Newby; not a bit of 
doubt." 

" Do you recognize him from his appearance 
or from conversations had with him ? " 



THE DEFENSE. 175 

" Both." 

Ezekiah Huntsinger : " Knew William Newby 
well up to the time he entered the army. Have 
seen him several times since his return in 1891. 
Haven't a doubt but that this is Newby. Am 
able to identify him from general appearance 
and conversations. The more I see him, the 
more natural he becomes as Newby, and the 
more I know he is Newby. He resembles the 
Newby family very forcibly in manner. I think 
his mind is in a very bad condition." 

John Felix, White County : " I have been 
intimately acquainted with Newby since he was 
a boy. lyived about five miles from him until 
he joined the army. He was then about five 
feet eleven inches tall, and weighed about one 
hundred and seventy or one hundred and eighty 
pounds. Had black hair, dark complexion, and 
dark eyes. Neck in proportion to body. Had 
a tolerably broad hand, fingers not short and 
stumpy. Saw Newby the Sunday after Ki 
brought him home on Tuesday. Have seen 
and talked with him many times since. His 
mind is bad, but sometimes comes and goes." 

Question: "Is this defendant William 
Newby ? " 

" He is the William Newby I knew, and no- 
body else." 



176 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

" Have you any doubt ? " 

" No doubt at all." 

" Do you recognize him from his appearance, 
or from conversations had with him? " 

" From appearance." 

David E. Felix : " I was intimately acquainted 
with William Newby from the time he was big 
enough to run around until he enlisted in the 
army. He was then a large, full-fleshed man, 
dark-complected, dark hair, dark eyes. Have 
seen him several times since he returned in 1891, 
and recognize him. Can see a strong resem- 
blance to his mother and the Simpsons (Newby's 
mother was a Simpson). He also looks like his 
father, John Newby, used to. Have heard him 
talk to other people, but have had no conversa- 
tion with him. He has the same talk, manner, 
and general appearance that he had before the 
war. I have no doubt that he is William 
Newby." 

" Do you recognize him from his appear- 
ance? " 

" Yes, sir." 

Mrs. Julia A. Rogers : " I knew Newby well 
before the war. Lived about two miles from 
him. He then had dark eyes and dark com- 
plexion. His hair was black on top of his head 



THE DEFENSE. 177 

when it was protected by his hat, but he wore it 
long, and it looked sunburned on the end. He 
had a fleshy neck. I saw defendant soon after 
his return two years ago, and have seen him 
since. I recognized him by my recollection of 
him before the war. Recognize him by his 
looks. It is Bill Newby. There is no doubt at 
all." 

Wm. Greathouse, brother-in-law to William 
Newby : "I was raised with Bill Newby, and 
married his sister. Before the war he had dark- 
brown hair, dark-brown eyes, and dark com- 
plexion, large hands and short fingers. He was 
a big-boned man. I remember him cutting his 
foot with a broadaxe, being kicked by a colt, 
and being bit on the arm in a fight before the 
war. Have examined him since his return, and 
find all the scars on him. From the defendant's 
actions, appearance, and conversation I am posi- 
tive that he is William Newby." 

Thompson Wallace, aged sixty-eight: "Wilham 
Newby and I were raised together, and were in 
the army together. He had dark eyes, dark 
hair, and dark complexion. Was about five feet 
eleven inches tall, and was rather fleshy." 

" Is the defendant William Newby? " 

" That is William Newby, certain as my name 
is Thompson Wallace." 



lyS WILLIAM NEWBY. 

James McNeely : " I belonged to the same 
company that William Newby did in the army, 
and I was well acquainted with him. I saw 
him on Sunday morning at the battle of Shiloh. 
I heard after the first charge Sunday morning 
that Newby had been killed, also several others 
of Company D, and went in the field and looked 
for Newby's body, I found the bodies of seven 
or eight of Company D among the dead, but 
could not find Newby. No bodies were buried 
until Tuesday evening. The defendant is Wil- 
liam Newby beyond a doubt." 

Robert Scott: "I was in the same company 
with Newby in the army and was with him 
every day. I first saw him, after his return, in 
Fairfield. He knew me and called me by 
name, and I recognized him. This man is Bill 
Newby." 

Captain James T. Vaught, Enfield, 111.: "I 
knew William Newby from my earliest recollec- 
tion until he went to the war, and also saw him 
in the army. He had dark hair, dark eyes with 
yellowish cast, and dark, swarthy complexion. 
Saw him in April, 1891, for the first time after 
his return. Have seen and talked to defendant 
twenty-five times since that, and can have no 
doubt that he is William Newby." 



THE DEFENSE. 179 

Cross-examination : "Do you recognize him 
from his appearance or from conversations had 
with him ? " 

" Principally from conversations, but some 
from appearance." 

Peter Fair recalled by defense. "In 1868, 
while defendant was in the Pike County, Ind., 
poorhouse, under the name of Allen Lewis, I 
heard him say he was shot in the thigh at Shiloh. 
At another time in 1872, in the same poorhouse, 
he said that he was a Union soldier, and was at 
the battle of Shiloh, where he was shot in the 
leg and was also hurt in the head by a piece of 
a bomb-shell. He said that the hurt in the head 
had made him crazy. After that he talked about 
being at Shiloh, and said that the hurt in his 
head had made him crazy, and that he used to 
be known as ' Crazy Jack.' At another place he 
used to be known as Allen Allen, and over in 
Illinois he used to be known as Bill Newby." 

John Tombs: "I knew Newby all my life, 
until he went to the war, living about three 
miles from him. I recollect his appearance very 
well. He was nearly six feet tall, and of strong 
build, weighing about one hundred and ninety 
pounds. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark 
complexion. Saw the defendant the next morn- 



l8o WILLIAM NEWBY. 

ing after his return. Have seen and talked with 
him several times since, and we have talked over 
our early life. He looks like he did before the 
war. There is no doubt about him being 
Newby." 

Mrs. John Tombs, aged fifty-three: "I knew 
William Newby from the time I was fifteen years 
old until the war. Lived for a while at his 
house. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark 
complexion. I saw him about the third day 
after his return in 1891. Have talked with him 
a half dozen times since. I knew him from his 
looks. 

Cross-examination: " Newby had a large hand 
and foot, big neck, and a fat face." 

Wm. Howard : " I lived close to Newby, and 
knew him well before the war. Can remember 
his appearance. The defendant is William 
Newby. He has William Newby's face. The 
more I look at him the more I know it is 
Newby." 

Cross-examination: " Newby had a medium- 
sized hand for a man of his size. He had a large 
neck, that is, it was fleshy. He would weigh a 
hundred and eighty pounds or more. I don't 
know that I could have identified the defendant 
at first sight, but after looking at him carefully, 



THE DEFENSE. 1 81 

and hearing his voice, know he is William 
Newby." 

J. R. Buchannan : "I knew William Newby 
for about thirty years before the war. He was 
a big, stout man, weighing about two hundred 
pounds, had a big, fleshy neck, dark hair, dark 
eyes, and dark complexion. I saw him soon 
after his return in 1891. Have seen him fre- 
quently since then. He has the same voice, 
same eyes, and same expression of the face. I 
have talked over incidents that happened to him 
and me before the war with him. I am able to 
recognize him. I remember the time he was cut 
in the foot by a broadaxe, and also remember 
him being kicked on the shin by a colt." 

Mrs. Polly Storey : "I knew Newby well be- 
fore the war. He had very dark-brown hair, 
dark-brown eyes, and dark complexion. I saw 
him about two weeks after his return, and when 
I first saw him recognized him by his voice and 
appearance. He used to have a very peculiar 
stammer in his speech, which he has yet. He 
looks very much like he used to." 

Cross-examination: " Newby had a big, thick 
neck, and was big around the shoulders, but was 
round-shouldered. He was just a big, stout 
man." 



1 82 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

Mrs. Martha Lawrence : " I am a sister of 
William Newby's mother, and knew him from 
the time he was a child, living about two miles 
from him. He was a tolerably large man, heavy- 
set, with broad shoulders. He had dark com- 
plexion, dark eyes, and dark hair. He came to 
see me in Fairfield the fourth day after his re- 
turn. I recognized him from his looks. Not a 
doubt on earth that this man is the identical 
William Newby." 

Cross-examination : " There was no sandy 
appearance in his hair. His hair was not curly. 
He wore no beard, as a rule, but his beard was 
about the color of his hair. His neck was me- 
dium-sized for his body." 

Wm. McNeely: " I served in the army with 
William Newby, and was intimately acquainted 
with him. I saw him in line of battle on Sun- 
day morning. I went on the battleground after 
the battle was over, before any bodies were 
buried. Had heard that William Newby was 
killed, and searched for his body, but could not 
find it. I next saw him a short time after his 
return home, and recognized him at once. He 
looks very natural from chin up, but is thinner 
than he was in the army. I put a test to him 
that no one else except he and I could know. 
The defendant is William Newby." 



THE DEFENSE. 183 

Ed. Puckett: "I was well acquainted with 
Newby from the time we were both children. I 
last saw him in the army, two days before the 
battle of Shiloh. He was a large man, about 
five feet eleven inches high, and would weigh 
about two hundred pounds. Had dark hair, 
dark eyes, and a dark complexion. Saw him 
soon after his return in 1891, and recognized him 
by his countenance." 

Ed. Baines, Hamilton County: "I was inti- 
mately acquainted with William Newby in the 
army. I was in line of battle with him on Sun- 
day morning, and saw him after he was wounded, 
as we were retreating. He was lying on his 
right side with his head to the east, and was 
wounded on the left side of the head. I then 
thought he was dead, but had no time to stop 
and see. I never saw him after that until April 
5, 1891. He recognized me, and I had a talk 
with him. Have talked with him twenty times 
since, and he told me things that no other people 
knew. I recognized him by his manner and ex- 
pression of countenance and manner." 

Stephen Anderson, Wa^me County: "I knew 
William Newby before the war. He was at my 
house once before the war on a particular errand, 
and an incident occurred then. When I saw 
defendant he asked me about that event." 



J 84 WILLIAM NEWBY, 

Asbury Lane : "I knew William Newby from 
the time we were little children until he enlisted 
in the army, and also served in the army with 
him. Saw and had a talk with him at Shiloh on 
the day before he was shot. He had a peculiar 
stoppage in his speech that I remember well. I 
saw him again soon after his return, and recog- 
nized him by his voice and countenance. I 
could see the odd expression in his eyes and 
features. He came to me so plain that I could 
not doubt it was Newby." 

Henry Fetters, Fairfield : "I was in the same 
regiment as Newby in the army, and knew him 
well. I last saw him before he was shot about 
six o'clock Sunday morning at Shiloh. The 
charge that Newby was shot in was made Sun- 
day morning, and the bodies were left on the 
field until Tuesday evening. I saw defendant 
soon after his return, and recognized him as soon 
as I saw his face, by the expression of his eyes, 
a mole near his left eye, and another on the 
right side of his nose. I first saw him in a 
buggy, and he threw up his head in a manner 
that was just as natural as Mr. Creighton (refer- 
ring to one of the attorneys) looks now." 

Wm, Colburn, Wayne County: "I served in 
the same regiment as William Newby in the 



THE DEFENSE. 185 

army, and was well acquainted with him. He 
was a good-sized, fleshy man, with fleshy neck 
and face, dark hair, dark complexion, and small, 
dark eyes. I stood guard with him on the night 
of April 4, 1862, two nights before he was shot. 
We had a conversation that night. I saw de- 
fendant soon after he returned in 1891, and he 
repeated most of that conversation to me without 
help. I had never repeated it to anyone from 
the time we stood guard together until the de- 
fendant repeated it to me. Have seen the defend- 
ant several times since that. He is William 
Newby. From his mouth up he looks natural, 
although he is thin, and the back of his neck 
looks natural. I would have known him from 
appearances, and also recognized his voice." 

Wm. Baity, White County : " I was in the 
same company as William Newby in the army, 
and was intimately acquainted with him. We 
were good friends. I stood guard with him 
many times. When I heard he had returned 
two years ago I said if it is Bill Newby he will 
have two moles on his face, one on the right side 
of the upper lip, and the other about the left 
temple near the eye. I distinctly remember 
those marks, and they came to my mind as soon 
as I heard of his return. I have seen him fre- 



1 86 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

quetitly since then, and found the moles as I 
remembered them. I was able to recognize him 
by his form, expression, and speech. Newby 
also knew circumstances connected with myself 
that no other but I knew. He talked them over 
to me." 

Solomon Upton, White County, aged sixty-six: 
" I have been acquainted with William Newby 
ever since I was a boy, and enlisted in the army 
at the same time, but joined Company C, of the 
40th Illinois. Newby was in Company D. We 
kept up our friendship in the army. I saw him 
in line of battle at Shiloh about nine o'clock 
Sunday morning. Saw him lying on the battle- 
field as we retreated, and thought he was dead, 
but we were retreating rapidly and I had no 
time to examine him. When I heard two years 
ago that he had come back I did not believe it, 
but went to see to satisfy myself, and as soon as 
I saw the defendant I recognized his eyes. His 
eyes looked like the old original Newby. He 
did not recognize me, and I told him my name. 
He said, ' Oh, yes, I know you now, and will tell 
you how you looked in the army,' and then told 
how I used to look. He is Bill Newby. There 
was a man in my company that looked almost 
like Bill, named Hiram Morris. I saw Morris in 



THE DEFENSE. 187 

line of battle that same Sunday morning. He 
was reported missing after the battle, and has 
never been heard of since." 

Capt. James Fields, Wayne County: "I was 
born and raised in the neighborhood where Wil- 
liam Newby lived, and knew him well long before 
the war. I served in the same regiment, but in 
Company C. We kept up our acquaintance in 
the army. The last time I saw him in the ser- 
vice was at Shiloh, about eleven o'clock Sunday 
morning, in line of duty, in the first charge we 
made in the battle of Shiloh. That charge did not 
last long, and we were compelled to retreat. There 
were no bodies buried by our forces until late 
Tuesday afternoon. The bodies were then greatly 
swollen and had turned black, and difficult to 
recognize. I saw Hiram Morris in line of battle 
in that first charge. He was reported missing after 
the battle, and has never been heard from since. 
I am acquainted with his widow and family and 
know that they have never heard from him. He 
was about the same size as Newby, his hair, 
eyes, and complexion were about the same color, 
and in general appearance he looked much like 
Newby. All our regiment had on uniforms, and 
I think the body of Hiram Morris could easily 
have been mistaken for William Newby's. The 



l88 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

defendant came to my house in February, 1891, 
and wanted to stay all night. After talking to 
me a while he said, 'I know you,' and told me 
my name. Have seen him frequently since then, 
and can see a strong resemblance to Bill Newby. 
He has the same peculiarities, same impediment 
in his speech, speaks and talks like Newby, 
swears like Newby used to, and has the same 
expression in the eyes. I have also put tests to 
him. From my recollection of his expression 
and appearance I can not doubt that the defend- 
ant is William Newby." 

Cross-examination: "I think he is Newby 
from my recollection of how he used to look, but 
my belief has been strengthened by conversations 
with him. His looks impress me stronger than 
conversations." 

Wm. Rose, S. L. Wallace, John Null, and 
Moses Robinson, of White, Wayne and Hamilton 
Counties, all members of the 40th Illinois In- 
fantry, testified to knowing Hiram Morris and 
William Newby both in the army ; that the re- 
semblance of the two was very strong ; that 
Morris was in line of battle at Shiloh in the 
first charge, and afterwards was reported missing 
and has never been heard from since. His fam- 
ily has never heard from him, but his wife has 



THE DEFENSE. 189 

been unable to secure a pension because she 
could not prove his death. 

Charles White, Hamilton County: "I knew 
Newby and his brothers before the war, and knew 
him in the army, being a member of the same 
regiment, but of Company C, and was with him 
up to the battle of Shiloh. I saw him about 
eleven o'clock Sunday morning lying on the 
ground, with the blood flowing from the left side 
of his head — dead, as I supposed. Did not stop 
to see if he was dead. They commenced bury- 
ing the dead Tuesday evening. It was difficult 
to recognize the bodies of those who were killed 
Sunday, for it had been raining hard part of the 
time, and the bodies had turned black and were 
much swollen. I saw Hiram Morris in line of 
battle Sunday morning. He was missing after 
the battle, and has never returned. He resem- 
bled Newby, and might easily have been mis- 
taken for him in burying the dead, especially as 
the bodies were in such bad condition." 

George Creisle, Hamilton County: "I knew 
Newby well before the war. I visited him at 
Paducah while he was in the army. He was 
about five feet eleven inches tall, and had dark 
hair, dark-gray eyes, and dark complexion. He 
had a stoppage in his speech, and a very peculiar 



190 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

voice. I saw him soon after his return in 1891. 
I didn't know him at first, but did after talking 
to him. He has the stoppage in his speech, and 
same peculiar voice. I know of no man that 
looks more like he did thirty years ago than he 
does, except that he is broken down physically. 
This is Bill Newby. Hiram Morris and my wife 
were cousins. He was reported missing after 
the battle of Shiloh, and his wife has never 
heard from or of him since, and could not get a 
pension because she could not prove his death. 
Morris looked a good deal like Newby." 

Newton McRill, Wayne County: "I was in 
same regiment as Newby in the army, and was 
well acquainted with him. A certain circum- 
stance occurred when he and I were on picket 
together one night that other people had no op- 
portunity to know about. I saw defendant soon 
after he came to White County, and he detailed 
that circumstance to me." 

Crede A. Lay, Hamilton County : " I was a 
member of the 40th Regiment, and was well 
acquainted with Newby. I saw him in line of 
battle at Shiloh on Sunday morning after he was 
shot. One of the boys was holding his head up. 
There was blood all over the side of his head. 
I didn't think he was dead, but thought he would 



^HE DEFENSE. 191 

be in a minute or two. I said, ' Boys, he is dead, 
and we had better get out of here.' Some of 
them said ' He is not dead, but soon will be.' 
The battle was fought on Sunday and Monday, 
and the dead were buried on Tuesday afternoon.. 
It had been raining, and was warm. The bodies 
were much discolored, almost as black as my 
hat (referring to a black woolen hat in his hand), 
and were badly swollen. It would be hard to 
tell them from black men except from their hair 
and their beard. It was hard to identify one's 
own friends. I next met him on the railroad 
near McLeansboro. He stopped me, and said, 
' Hello, did you get crippled in the army like 
me ? ' (Witness is crippled.) I stopped and 
talked to him, and thought I ought to know 
this man, and finally it came to me that it was 
William Newby, who, I supposed, was dead. I 
examined him, and found a scar corresponding 
with the wound I saw on his head at Shiloh, and 
a mole that I remembered. I took him to a 
hotel, and sent word to the Newby family that 
Bill had returned." 

Mr. Lay was later recalled, and testified that 
Pension Examiner Holmes had taken a state- 
ment from him. In the statement he had said 
that he thought Newby was dead after the battle. 



192 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

and saw the boys roll him over and take some 
tobacco and a knife out of his pocket. When 
asked if Newby used tobacco, he said he did not 
think so, but knew positively that the boys took 
some tobacco from the man whom they thought 
was William Newby. 

G. J. George, Fairfield: "I knew William 
Newby from the time I could remember, up to 
the battle of Shiloh ; lived near to him, and 
knew all of his family. I was orderly sergeant 
of the company Newby belonged to at the battle 
of Shiloh, and saw him in the line of battle Sun- 
day morning in the first charge. He and a few 
other men were a little in advance of their com- 
pany. At the first of the charge the captain was 
shot, and the men broke their line and scattered. 
After that there wasn't much line of battle, but 
companies C and D intermixed and got behind 
trees, stumps, and whatever protection they could. 
I next saw Newby by a small tree. He had 
been leaning against the tree, and was then fall- 
ing over on his right side. There was blood on 
the left side of his head. I made the detail for 
burying the dead on Tuesday evening. The 
men were tired and worn out, having had no 
rest. since Sunday morning, and wanted to shirk 
the duty of burying the dead bodies until they 



'THE DEFENSE. 193 

had rested and got some sleep. The bodies were 
then swollen and offensive to the smell, and the 
burying was done hurriedly. They were dressed 
in uniform, and in their condition all looked 
alike. I could only recognize the bodies that I 
examined closely. I recognized two bodies, but 
did not see Newby's body to know it. I made 
the report of the killed of Company D, and gave 
Newby in the list of the dead. Did not know 
that he was killed of my own knowledge, but got 
the information from the men in the company. 
I went to see Newby the Sunday after he came 
back, and have frequently seen him since. I 
don't see how he can be anybody else, and have 
no doubt it is he. I have put him to such tests 
that I can not see how he can be anybody else 
but William Newby, unless one can believe in 
the supernatural. There was one man in the 
company who maintained that Newby was not 
killed. That was a hospital steward, a brother- 
in-law of Newby's. He said he had looked for 
Newby's body and it was not on the field. He 
was very positive that Newby was not killed. 
Newby fell about six to ten feet from Adam 
Files. There were eight of Company D reported 
killed. Seven bodies were buried where Com- 
pany D had been stationed, and there was no 



194 WII.LIAM NKWBY. 

dispute about their identity. The captain's body 
was taken away by his son. The next time 
Company D was called together, all of them 
were accounted for." 

Marion Files, Morgan County, Mo.: "I lived 
in Waybe County, 111,, before the war. William 
Newby was my uncle. I used to trim his hair 
before the war, joined the same company in the 
army, and frequently cut his hair there. It was 
dark and coarse. I saw Newby in the battle of 
Shiloh. I was twice wounded, and was trying 
to get to the rear, and crawled past Newby. He 
was wounded in the right leg, and was trying to 
get up. I said, ' Bill, what's the matter ? ' and 
he said, ' I am shot all to pieces.' I think the 
wound was in the right thigh. I have no doubt 
that the defendant is Newby." 

Hans Goodrich, McLeansboro: "I knew New- 
by well before he enlisted, also knew him in the 
army. I saw him in the spring of 1891, and he 
has stayed at my house as often as four nights 
since then. There is a strong resemblance to 
his former appearance in his eyes, forehead, and 
general shape of the head, also his expression. 
I have talked to him frequently in the last two 
years. Sometimes he would talk very intelli- 
gently, but at other times very much off." 



THE DEFENSE. 195 

Question: " Is this man William Newby ? " 

" That's what's left of him." 

Mrs. Martha Greathouse, Arkadelphia, Ark., 
sister of William Newby: " I am sixty -two years 
old. William was about six years older than I. 
Lived with him until I was married, and after 
that we visited each other frequently. He was 
a large, fleshy man, weighing probably one hun- 
dred and ninety pounds. His hair was very dark 
brown and rather coarse, eyes yellowish black, 
and complexion dark. There was nothing un- 
usual about his hands, except they were fleshy. 
I first learned of his return by reading of it in 
the papers while I was sick in Mt. Vernon, Ind. 
When I got able I went to Mill Shoals to see 
him, and did not expect to see him until I got 
to the house in the country, but I saw him at 
the depot, and recognized him. I recognized 
his voice, the expression of his eyes, and the 
peculiar stammer in his speech. This is a fam- 
ily peculiarity. At that time Presley Newby 
said it was William. I do not believe defendant 
is of sound mind. I say he is my brother." 

Mrs. Mary Tullis, Wayne County, sister of 
William Newby: "I always lived close to Wil- 
liam until he went to the war. He was a large 
man, about five feet ten or eleven inches tall, 



196 WILi^IAM NEWBY. 

with dark eyes,- dark complexion, and dark hair. 
I remember two moles on his face, one on left 
temple, other on right side of his upper lip. I 
also remember a cut he received on left foot with 
an axe. It was lengthwise of his foot. He was 
crippled a long time from it, and it left a long 
scar. He was also kicked on the right shin b}- 
a colt, which left a large scar. He was brought 
to my house soon after his return. I have talked 
to him in his lucid intervals, and he has told me 
many family affairs that occurred when we were 
children. He is my brother. I have no kind 
of doubt in the world. He resembles my folks 
in his motions and in his face, and has the same 
peculiar stoppage in his speech that he had be- 
before the war, which is a family characteristic. 
He looks like he did before the war except he is 
older. His voice is the same, but not so strong." 
Whaley Newby : " I am. a brother of William 
Newby. He is about twelve years older than I 
am. I enlisted and served in the same company 
as he did. I saw him Sunday morning in line 
of battle at Shiloh. I was wounded in the battle 
and did not know what became of Bill except 
what I was told. When we heard that he had 
returned about the first of April, 1891, I went 
with Ki Newby and young Tullis after him, and 



THE DEFENSE. 197 

found him about seven miles below Carmi. His 
mind seemed to be all torn up. He was very 
ragged, had a beard, and looked like a tramp. 
I did not go clear back home with him, but went 
to see him the next Sunday, and talked to him. 
I have seen and talked to him very often since 
then. He is my brother William." 

Mrs. Ferebe Newby, wife of William Newby : 
" I am the wife of William Newby. We were 
married in October, 1849, and settled on a tract 
of timber-land in White County, 111., and cleared 
it out and made a farm. We had six children : 
Henrietta, aged forty-two ; John W., forty ; Wil- 
liam, thirty-eight; Marion, thirty-six ; Hezekiah, 
thirty-four ; and Rebecca, who was three months 
old when her father joined the army. I heard 
from him up to the battle of Shiloh in 1862, and 
was then informed that he had been killed in 
that battle. I applied for a pension, and re- 
ceived one. I went to Texas in 1890 to live 
with my son John, and took up a land claim. 
In the early part of 189 1 I received word that 
my husband had returned home. I went back 
to White County, and when I got there I first 
saw William at the gate of his brother Whaley 
Newby's house, and recognized him as soon as 
I looked at him. He was excited and his mind 



198 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

was in bad condition, and I did not talk to him 
much then. He always had a peculiar way of 
calling my name, and when he saw me the first 
time after his return he called my name in that 
same old way. In the last two years we have 
often talked of our married life before the war, 
and I know that he is my husband. Sometimes 
he is very crazy, and does not even know me — 
at other times he seems lucid. His mind is 
greatly improved in the past two years. As 
soon as I got home I gave up my pension pa- 
pers, and refused to receive it any longer. I 
took my husband to Texas in October, 1891. 
He came back to Illinois to make proof of his 
pension papers, and I staid in Texas to hold my 
land claim. I saw in a paper this spring that 
he had been arrested, and at once started home." 
Mrs. Rebecca Newby, mother of William 
Newby, aged ninety-five: '* I am William New- 
by's mother. He lived with me until he was 
grown, and after he was married lived close 
to me. He was a big man, with dark-brown 
hair and dark skin. I am nearly blind, but have 
talked to William since his return, and know it 
is he. William had a ginger-bread birthmark 
about the size of my little finger-nail when he 
was a baby, but outgrew it." 



THE DEFENSE. ^99 

Mrs. Newby was, of course, feeble, and was 
not examined at much length. 

Hezekiah Newby : " I am a son of William 
and Ferebe Newby, and am thirty-four years 
old. I do not remember my father before he 
went to the war. I was told by Charles White, 
of McLeansboro, 111., in April, 1891, that my 
father had come back and was at the White 
County poorfarm. I went to my uncle, Presley 
Newby, told him what I had heard, and asked 
him how I could tell whether he was my father 
or not. He said that if the man was my father 
I would find a long scar on his left foot, a big 
scar on his shin, and a mole on the right side of 
his upper lip. I went to see the man, and found 
the scars and mole as Uncle Pres had described 
to me. I then went to McLeansboro, and told 
what I had done. My uncle Presley Newby and 
John Files then went to the poorfarm to see the 
man, but when we got there found that he had 
left the poorfarm and started toward the Indiana 
line. We overtook him about seven miles be- 
low Carmi, near the Wabash River, and tried to 
persuade him to return to his old home. I told 
him that I was his son, and that he was Bill 
Newby. The man acted kind of dazed, crazy- 
like, crying and wailing, and displaying evi- 



200 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

dences of insanity. John Files and I questioned 
him. The defendant said his name was Bill 
Newby, and that Carroll Newby was his father. 
John Files, who had known him before he left 
for the war, was somewhat dazed at this state- 
ment, as he was sure it was Bill Newby, and I 
took him home, some sixteen miles. When we 
got him home the news spread that Bill Newby 
had returned, and his old friends came in and 
stood around and talked to him, several coming 
every day for a good while." 

Several other relatives of Newby, and many 
more old army comrades, friends, and neighbors, 
testified positively that they recognized the de- 
fendant as William Newby. 

One of the most interesting branches of the 
entire case is the testimony of seven witnesses 
who recognized the defendant as a character 
they knew in Andersonville prison in 1864 and 
1865. None of these seven witnesses knew Wil- 
liam Newby before or during the war, and, of 
course, could not identify the claimant as Wil- 
liam Newby, but only knew him as a prisoner in 
Andersonville. 

Wm. Snyder, Parkersburg, 111.: " I was in 
Company H, 14th Illinois Cavalry, in the late 
war, and was captured by the Confederate army 



THE DEFENSE. 20I 

on Stoneman's raid July 27, 1864, and was taken 
to Andersonville prison about four days later. 
I remained there about three months, and was 
then taken to Florence, Ala., where I was 
paroled. I saw the defendant in Andersonville 
prison soon after I got there. He was held as 
a prisoner and was known as ' Crazy Jack.' 
The lower part of his limbs were rotten with the 
scurvy and gangrene sores, and he was covered 
with vermin. He had hardly any clothes, some- 
times wore none at all, and never wore a hat. 
The flies and vermin would get into the sores 
on his legs, and he would get into the dirty 
water to keep them off him. I have seen the 
boys drag him out of the water many times, and 
have done it myself. I saw what was known then 
as the Christian Band take 'Crazy Jack' one time 
and bathe him and cut his hair. When they 
cut his hair I saw the large scar on the left side 
of his head. ' Crazy Jack ' was a mere skeleton 
when I knew him in the prison. He occupied 
a hole in the sand twenty-five or thirty steps 
from my quarters, and I saw him very often, 
oftener than once a day. I never knew him by 
any other name than ' Crazy Jack.' As soon as 
I saw the defendant about two years ago I recog- 
nized him. I would have known him any place 



202 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

in the world. He was in Andersonville when I 
was taken away." 

Mr. Snyder was later recalled, and said that 
" Crazy Jack," while in Andersonville, was about 
thirty-five to forty years old. 

Joseph Russell, Carmi, 111.: " I was a member 
of the 48th Illinois Infantry. I was captured 
by the Confederates, and taken to Andersonville 
prison. I got to Andersonville May 26, 1864, 
and remained there about three months. I knew 
a man there called ' Craz}' Jack ' very well, and 
as soon as I saw defendant in Carmi about two 
years ago I recognized him as ' Crazy Jack.' 
When I first saw him in 1891 I was standing in 
my store door at Carmi, and saw him coming 
down the street with some other people. He 
was off some distance, and as soon as I caught 
sight of him I said to a man I was talking to, 
' If that ain't " Crazy Jack," by Jingo, it's his 
ghost,' and when he came closer I said, ' It's 
"Crazy Jack" and there's no rubbing it out.' 
This man is ' Crazy Jack.' " 

Henry Jamison, Wayne County : " I enlisted 
in the army at Shawneetown, 111., and was in 
the 56th Illinois Infantry. I was captured, taken 
prisoner, and taken to Andersonville prison in 
October, 1864, and remained there until April 



THE DEFENSE. 203 

16, 1865. I knew the defendant in Anderson- 
ville as ' Crazy Jack.' He was then in a fearful 
condition. His lower limbs were all black and 
broken out with running sores. He was still in 
Andersonville when I left there. I recognized 
the defendant as ' Crazy Jack.' Knew him by 
his eyes, expression, and his walk. He walks 
now like he did then, but a little better. We 
regarded him as very crazy at Andersonville." 

Job Downey : "I belonged to Company D, 
29th Infantry. I was captured and taken to 
Andersonville prison by the Confederates in 
May, 1864. I stayed there that time until 
about the last of August or the first of Septem- 
ber, and was then removed, but was returned in 
the winter. I saw the defendant a great many 
times during my first confinement in the prison, 
but was given quarters in another part of the 
prison the second time. I often saw him up and 
down the branch. I thought he had about as 
much sense as a hog. I recognize the defendant 
by his eyes, the shape of his head, his general 
condition, and his walk, I recognized him be- 
fore I talked to him by his walk, by the picture 
I had in my mind of him when he was in Ander- 
sonville. I have conversed with the defendant, 
and he has told me incidents that occurred in 



204 WIIvLIAM NEWBY. 

Andersonville while we were prisoners there. 
In addition to these witness, Emanuel Berry, of 
Carmi, and Uriah King and James Grant, both 
of Springfield, testified that they were prisoners 
at Andersonville, knew " Crazy Jack " there and 
identified defendant as him. They said that he 
was at that time aged about thirty-five to forty. 

D. F, Morgan and George Mcintosh both tes- 
tified to having seen defendant fall off a road-cart 
under the horse he was driving in the summer 
of 1891. He was rigid and frothing at the mouth. 
They pulled him out from under the horse, and 
he recovered in a little while. 

The defense had the evidence of one man who 
had seen " Rickety Dan," of Tennessee, and who 
testified that claimant was not that man — Nathan 
Reid, Wayne County: " I was employed in busi- 
ness in Tennessee. My health had been poor, 
and my physicians thought a change of climate 
would benefit me. For that reason I took a 
position as traveling agent for Dr. Champion's 
medicines, and traveled through the country in 
a buggy. I was in Tennessee all through July, 
1869. I saw a queer character close to Linville, 
Tenn., which I think is about fifty miles from 
Nashville, who was called ' Rickety Dan.' I 
stayed all night at the same farmhouse once. 
He was peddling cheap jewelry. The proprietor 



THE DEFENSE. a05 

told me that lie was ' Rickety Dan,' and I think, 
but am not positive about the last name, that he 
said 'Rickety Dan ' Benton. I saw him as often 
as four times. The defendant is not that man. 
' Rickety Dan ' was not so tall as defendant by 
two or three inches. The defendant walked like 
him, but better." 

The last branch of the evidence taken up by 
the defense was the expert testimony. It was 
very interesting, and, the author thought, of 
great importance. 

Dr. C. W. Sibley, of Fairfield: " I am a prac- 
ticing physician and surgeon. Am a graduate 
of Bellevue Hospital College, and have been 
practicing twenty-five years. I have examined 
the defendant four or five times as a member of 
the pension board at Fairfield. I found no in- 
dication of rickets. The defendant never had 
the rickets. If the defendant ever had the rick- 
ets it could be told now. I have examined the 
scar on defendant's head. It is a place where, 
if it injured the brain, would cause the defendant 
to walk as he does. A blow might cause an in- 
dentation of the inner table of the skull without 
external indentation. A blow on the head in 
such a case might produce blood-clot ; a clot 
might be followed by paresis, insanity, epilepsy, 
or a condition of the nervous system known as 



2o6 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

neurosis. The defendant has some indications 
of epilepsy, particularly scars on his tongue, as 
if from biting it. The wound might have been 
made by a projectile, such as a ball or a part of 
a shell. The defendant's mind is not right at 
any time, and he is in the condition known as 
dementia. This condition may have been caused 
by injury to the brain. The scar on the de- 
fendant's thigh is the scar from a gunshot wound. 
I saw the scar on the inside of his left foot. It 
was caused by some sharp instrument. I also 
found the scar on the shin. It is the result of 
an ulcer, and may have been caused by a bruise, 
such as the kick of a horse. The defendant was 
not a cripple until he was nearly grown. I have 
examined him and find his bones all fully and 
perfectly developed. The wound on the head is 
in such a location that it would affect the nerves 
of limbs on the opposite side of the body, and 
cause the lack of control of the limbs and the 
peculiar gait the defendant has. In injuries to 
the brain of that kind which affect the nerves 
of the body the opposite side of the body is af- 
fected. Such a condition as the defendant's 
would weaken the memory, and make the sub- 
ject incapable of sustained mental effort. Such 
condition might be permanent, but in case of 
blood-clot it might be absorbed, and in pressure 



THE DEFENSE. 207 

from displacement of the skull the bones might 
adjust themselves. After ten or fifteen years in 
this condition no change would be likely to take 
place for the better. The mental condition of 
the patient may be affected by extraneous cir- 
cumstances." 

Dr. J. N. Dixon, Dr. E. S. Fowler, Dr. E. P. 
Bartlett, of the Springfield pension board, and 
Dr. I. S. Hughes, of the pension board, all of 
Springfield, and Dr. C. C. Truscott, Cisne, 111., 
Dr. Chester Files, of Bone Gap, 111,, and Dr. 
Hunter, Springfield, 111., all testified that they 
had made careful examinations of the defendant, 
and said that the defendant had never had rick- 
ets, could not have been crippled from birth or 
early childhood, and that his mental condition 
and his peculiar gait were caused from the wound 
on the head, which had injured his brain. They 
said the same as Dr. Sibley in regard to the scar 
on the defendant's lower limbs and foot. They 
also said that there were signs that defendant 
was subject to epilepsy, indicated by scars on 
his tongue, where he had probably bitten him- 
self. 

The defense closed its case here, and District 
Attorney Shutt announced that the government 
would introduce some evidence in rebuttal. 



208 WiLLIAM newbV. 



REBUTTAL. 

Silas Biggerstaflf, Hamilton County, 111., was 
the first witness called in rebuttal, and said: " I 
knew William Newby before the war. I first 
saw the defendant some time in March, 1891, be- 
fore he was taken to the home of the Newbys. 
He came to my house, and staid some time. He 
said his name was Allen Newby. He talked 
about William Newby, and where William New- 
by was killed, with a John Simpson, in my pres- 
ence. Simpson told him that William Newby 
was killed at Shiloh, and they talked about that 
for about half an hour. Defendant never once 
claimed to be William Newby. He said that he 
was in the battle of Shiloh, and was wounded in 
the leg in the first charge, and when the rebels 
drove the Union troops back he asked a rebel 
soldier for a drink of water, and the soldier 
struck him on the side of the head with the butt 
end of his gun. Defendant said he had a brother 
at Mill Shoals. He was a puzzle to me because 



he talked so rambling, and told so many unrea- 
sonable tales." 

A. A. Holmes, Sullivan, Ind., a former special 
examiner, who worked on the claimant's pension 
application for^ some time, was then called and 
read two sworn statements of the defendant; 
one taken in January, 1892, and the other taken 
January 4, 1893. 

The defense objected to the reading of the 
statements in rebuttal upon the ground that the 
defendant had not gone upon the stand, but the 
court held that insanity was one of the defenses 
made by the defendant's attorneys, and therefore 
it would be proper to admit the statements to 
show the condition of defendant's mind. The 
statements contained ■ nearly two hundred pages 
of closely written legal cap. In them the de- 
fendant undertook to give a detailed account of 
his whereabouts from the time he was in Ander- 
sonville prison until he reached White County in 
1 89 1. The statements did not agree in many 
respects, and contained many unreasonable sto- 
ries, but showed that he had been in various 
poorhouses throughout Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, 
and Illinois, under the name of Daniel Benton 
— also in the Tennessee state penitentiary. The 
statements showed the defendant to be a man of 



2IO WIIvLIAM NEWBY. 

rambling mind, but yet a remarkable memory. 
To undertake to give their contents would be to 
tire the reader out, and would throw no light on 
the case. 

W. H. Merritt, recalled by the prosecution : 
" I was back in the hospital during the battle of 
Shiloh. No, I was not wounded, but helped a 
wounded man to the hospital, and staid there. 
The Confederates captured the hospital while I 
was in it. When the Union troops were about 
to retake the hospital the Confederates called on 
everybody who could walk to go with them. I 
laid still, and did not go. It was about fifteen 
miles to the nearest railroad station, Corinth. 
The wounded were left on the field and in the 
hospital until after the battle was over. I think 
the Confederate army took a large number of 
wounded men prisoners, but I did not know of 
them taking away any prisoners who could not 
walk. The rebels took no prisoners after Sun- 
day." 

Capt. W. S. Campbell, of the adjutant gen- 
eral's office of this state, was put upon the stand. 
He brought a copy of the record of the com- 
panies of the 40th Infantry, and was asked to 
read the record of Hiram Morris, of Company 
C. Objection was raised on the ground that 



REBUTTAL. 211 

this was not the original record, but it was 
claimed by the prosecution that it was compe- 
tent as it was published by the government 
authority. The court ruled that the evidence 
was admissible at whatever value it should prove 
to possess. 

" Hiram Morris, private, twenty-two years of 
age, six feet two inches high, black hair, black 
eyes, dark complexion ; farmer ; a resident of 
Berry, Pike County, 111.; entered August 26, 
1 86 1, discharged for disability April 13, 1863." 

I have been in the adjutant general's office 
about three months and have found about a half 
a dozen mistakes in these reports. 

There was another Morris, Jeremiah Morris, 
of whom no record is preserved as to what be- 
came of him. There are about thirty members 
of the company of whom no final record is made. 
Mr. Campbell was asked to turn to Company D, 
and found the name of William Newby. There 
was no record as to what became of him. The 
date of his enlistment is August 8, 1861, and he 
is described as being five feet eleven inches high, 
with dark hair and gray eyes, and dark com- 
plexion. 

Dr. B. M. Griffith, of Springfield : " I know 
the disease, Friedrich's ataxia. It is considered 



^12 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

hereditary. Sometimes it develops in childhood 
and sometimes later in life. It is called ataxia 
because of the peculiar motions of those afflicted 
with it. It aflfects the brain as well as the spinal 
cord, and does not affect the nutrition or devel- 
opment. Locomotor ataxia is the result of slow 
inflammation of the cord, or where it is caused 
by a blow on the head, produced by extravasated 
blood or pressure from depression of the skull, 
produces progressive paralysis. One foot would 
not be larger than another. " Friedrich's ataxjia- 
would produce atrophy and apparent deformity. 
He illustrated by the copy of the examination 
of William Newby by the Fairfield pension 
examiners and diagrams of the patient's feet 
in which the feet are unsymmetrical. This is 
never produced by locomotor ataxia. This con- 
dition can not be produced by a blow on the head 
in manhood. From the walk of the defendant, 
believe he has Friedrich's ataxia. He is knock- 
kneed, his feet turn sidewise, and he has the 
peculiar rolling motion of the eyeballs which is 
characteristic of Friedrich's ataxia. I have only 
seen the defendant on the street and sitting in 
the court-room. I could tell whether he has 
locomotor ataxia or Friedrich's ataxia if I made 
an examination of him. Any competent physi- 



REBUTTAL. 213 

cian could do so. The defendant has not got 
the rickets." 

Dr. T. W. Dresser, of Springfield, testified 
substantially the same as Dr. Griffith. 

Dr. C. W. Sibley was then recalled, and said 
that the diagram referred to above 'was not pre- 
tended to be accurate in size, but was made 
simply to show how the defendant's foot was 
twisted and deformed. In fact, the defendant's 
feet are of the same size. The diagram was 
then offered in evidence by the prosecution. 
This was objected to by the defense unless the 
whole report of the Fairfield pension board was 
allowed to go with it. The court overruled the 
objection and allowed the one page of the report 
without the balance to go to the jury. 

Thomas H. McBride, Cincinnati, Ohio, special 
pension examiner : " I took the defendant from 
Mill Shoals to Tennessee in April of this year. 
We went from Mill Shoals to Flora, 111., from 
Flora to Louisville, from Louisville to Nashville, 
where we staid a day, and drove from there to 
Brentwood, Tenn. On the way from Louisville 
to Nashville the defendant wanted to read, and 
I allowed, him to pick out a book, which he read 
on the train. In Nashville, on the road to Brent- 
wood and in that neighborhood we saw a good 



214 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

many people who recognized the defendant as 
' Rickety Dan.' On the way to Andrew Wooten's 
house we came to a long lane, at the end of 
which there was a house. Up the road, about 
the same distance, was another house. I did 
not know which was Wooten's house, and said 
to defendant, 'Now, Dan, you know all about this 
country ; tell me which house Wooten lives in, 
and don't make me drive through this mud to 
the wrong house.' Defendant said, ' I don't 
know where he lives, but I guess we had better 
drive up the lane.' We drove up there, and 
found Wooten. When Wooten came out defend- 
ant said, ' Hallo, have your two brothers-in-law 
got out of the penitentiary yet?' I asked 
Wooten if he knew the defendant. He said he 
thought he did, but asked me to have him get 
out and walk and he could tell me. I had the 
defendant get out and walk, and Wooten then 
said, ' He is " Rickety Dan " Benton.' Defend- 
ant then claimed that he did not know Wooten. 
When we got to Lem Sawyer's house the de- 
fendant called out to Sawyer, ' Come, take me 
back to the penitentiary,' but then pretended not 
to know Sawyer. When Sawyer told the de- 
fendant that he had never taken but one man to 
the penitentiary and that was Dan Benton, and 



REBUTTAL. 215 

said, ^ You are the man,' the defendant repHed, 
' You can have your way down here, but I have 
got four counties back of me up in lUinois, and 
I am going to get a twenty-thousand-dollar pen- 
sion.' He also told Mrs. McDowell, who was 
trying to fool him, that he knew he was Dan 
Benton, and when she asked him why he tried 
to deny his name, he said that he was suing 
the government for a big pension, and could not 
give himself away. The defendant would pre- 
tend not to know the different people down 
there, but I could see the look of recognition in 
his eye every time. The defendant is a man of 
remarkable memory and of low cunning, but not 
shrewd." 

Mr. McBride was the last witness placed upon 
the stand. His testimony, which was finished 
on Thursday evening, July 20, concluded the 
evidence, which had consumed more than eight 
days. At the close of his evidence the court 
adjourned until 8:30 o'clock the next morning, 
at which time the argument would be com- 
menced. 

The well-known ability of the attorneys who 
were to make the arguments in this most re- 
markable of cases caused an immense throng to 
be in the Federal court-room the next morning. 



2l6 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

Mr. Drennen made the opening argument for' 
the prosecution in a most masterly effort of three 
hours. He was followed by Col. Johns, Judge 
Kramer, and Mr. Creighton, in forcible and elo- 
quent speeches for the defense. Mr. Shutt, in a 
strong effort, closed the case for the government. 

At the conclusion of the arguments the judge 
gave the instructions to the jury, which are found 
elsewhere. 

When Judge Allen had finished reading his 
charge it was handed to the foreman of the jury, 
together with the statements of the defendant 
read by Mr. Holmes, and the other documentary 
evidence that had been offered for the considera- 
tion of the jury during the trial, and at 2:07 
o'clock the twelve jurymen, in charge of two 
officers, retired to consider the case. The de- 
fendant took the arm of the woman who believes 
him to be her husband, and who has been so 
faithful to him, and with his peculiar gait hobbled 
out of the room. The attorneys and large au- 
dience also left, and in five minutes the court- 
room, which had been packed with people for 
the past two weeks, was vacated except by the 
officers of the court and two or three lawyers who 
had another case to take up. 

There was a surprised silence when eighteen 



REBUTTAL. 217 

minutes later, at 2:25, the bailiff announced that 
the jury had reached an agreement. Proceed- 
ings were suspended, and the jury came in. The 
defendant was now wanted. It took a bailiff 
twenty minutes to find him. At 2:45 he came 
shambling in, followed by Ki Newby. It took 
ten minutes to get the lawyers together, and 
then the verdict was read. It was: 

"We, the jury, find the defendant guilty." 

Surprise was written on every face in the 
court-room. Everybody looked at "Rickety 
Dan " Benton, but he did not seem to care, for 
he only fanned a little harder with his old wool 
hat and looked a trifle harder at the floor. Mrs. 
Newby was not present. When the news reached 
her she broke into tears. The Court proceeded 
with another case. The defendant remained in 
the court-room half an hour. Then a deputy 
marshal took charge of him, and the last seen of 
him he was tottering up the street leaning on 
the arm of the officer. 

The defendant's attorneys informed the Court 
that they would ask for a new trial, and were 
given until the next Tuesday to formally enter 
the motion. 

There was intense excitement on the street 
when the result became known. The walks be- 



2l8 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

came crowded with people excitedly discussing 
the verdict. At the close of the trial it was the 
opinion of a vast majority of those who had lis- 
tened to the evidence day after day that the 
defendant would be acquitted. 

Money was freely offered by the people to pay 
the expense of a new trial if granted by Judge 
Allen, and if refused, for an appeal to the Supreme 
Court of the United States. On Wednesday, 
July 26, the attorneys for claimant filed a written 
motion for a new trial, alleging that — 

First, the verdict was contrary to the evidence. 

Second, the verdict was contrary to the law. 

Third, the verdict was contrary to the law and 
evidence. 

Fourth, certain members of the jury had 
formed and expressed an opinion of the guilt of 
the defendant before being accepted as jxirors. 

Fifth, certain members of the jury had formed 
and expressed an opinion of the guilt of defend- 
ant during the trial. 

Sixth, other misconduct of the jury. 

Seventh, the Court admitted improper evi- 
dence for the prosecution. 

Eighth, the Court refused competent evidence 
offered by the defense. 

Ninth, the Court in its charge to the jury erred 
as to the law. 



REBUTTAL. 219 

Tenth, the Court in its charge improperly dis- 
cussed the evidence. 

Eleventh, newly discovered evidence. 

Twelfth, other good and sufficient reasons. 

The Court then set August 14 as the date for 
arguing the above motion. On that date de- 
fendant's attorneys filed eight affidavits of per- 
sons who had known the original "Rickety 
Dan " Benton, describing him as having very 
light hair, deep-blue eyes, pug nose, deeply 
sunken between the eyes, and affected with the 
rickets. 

There were also affidavits presented by differ- 
ent people who had heard three members of the 
jury express opinions of the guilt of the claim- 
ant before and during the trial. 

The district attorney then asked until August 
26 to make reply to those affidavits, which was 
granted, and that day set for the formal argument 
of the motion for a new trial. 

On the 26th and 27th lengthy arguments were 
made for a new trial by Mr. Creighton, Col. 
Johns, and Gen. McCartney, of Chicago, Ex- 
Attorney General of Illinois, who had proffered 
his services to the defendant. 

More affidavits regarding the expression of 
prejudice against the defendant by one of the 



220 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

jurymen made before the trial, and eight more 
affidavits of persons who had seen Dan Benton 
in 1892 were offered, but the Court refused to 
allow them filed, saying that it had announced 
on the 14th of August that no affidavits would 
be received after that date. At the conclusion 
of the arguments the Court overruled the motion 
for a new trial, and sentenced the prisoner to 
hard labor in the penitentiary for two years. 

Defendant's attorneys, as a last resort, prayed 
an appeal, which was allowed upon the defend- 
ant giving, within sixty days, a bond in the sum 
of one thousand dollars to secure the costs. 

On the 30th day of August William Newby, 
or Daniel Benton, whichever he may be, was 
taken from the Sangamon County jail to Chester, 
111., where he was placed in the penitentiary to 
serve his sentence. 

Thus ended the trial, so far as this narration 
is concerned, of one of the strangest and most 
remarkable cases in the history of jurisprudence, 
a case which will undoubtedly be discussed in 
the law-books of all nations, and take a promi- 
nent place among the causes celebi'e. 

Meanwhile the claimant is serving his sentence 
in the penitentiary, and his attorneys and friends 
are using every effort to raise sufficient means to 
take his case to the highest tribunal of the land. 




HON. JAMES m'CARTNKY. 



m'CARTNEY'S letter. 221 



LETTER FROM HON. JAMES MCCARTNEY, 
EX-ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ILLINOIS. 

Unity Building, 
Chicago, September 4, 1893. 
Capt. G. J. George, Fairfield, III. 

Dear Friend : Your favor of the ist inst. 
received, asking a statement of the substance of 
the objections to Judge Allen's charge to the 
jury in the Newby case, and his answer thereto 
in overruling the motion for a new trial. 

The principal objections we made to the 
judge's charge to the jury were : The statement 
to the jury that they might consider and pass 
upon the expert evidence in the light of their 
" common sense and experience in life." 

We contended that this instruction was wrong, 
for the reason that the sole ground for the intro- 
duction of expert evidence was that the jury 
were not supposed to know or have any experi- 
ence concerning the subject upon which the evi- 
dence was offered. In this case the expert evi- 



222 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

dence was offered to show, as the judge says, 
" whether defendant is suffering from hereditary 
or acquired disease "; in other words, whether 
the defendant had rickets, or was suffering from 
wounds. The jury were told, in short, that they 
could believe the physicians or not, according as 
their " common sense and experience in life " 
told them, whether it was rickets or wounds in 
the head that affected the defendant. In pass- 
ing upon the motion the judge in no way or 
manner referred to, or passed upon, this objec- 
tion. 

The next principal objection we offered to the 
charge was that the judge instructed the jury 
upon the question of insanity, that, " if the de- 
fendant at the time of the application was an 
idiot, a lunatic, or affected with insanity, he 
should be acquitted." 

The law on this question is as laid down in 
the cases of Chase vs. The People, 40 111. 352, 
and Dacey vs. The People, 116 111. 573, that if 
insanity is alleged in defense, and there is suffi- 
cient evidence to raise a reasonable doubt, it de- 
volves upon the prosecution to prove the defend- 
ant's sanity beyond a reasonable doubt. The 
judge left this all out of his charge to the jury, 
and left it for the jury to understand that if they 



m'cartney's letter. 223 

simply believed that the defendant had sufficient 
mind to know right from wrong they should find 
him guilty. 

The Judge, in overruling the motion for anew 
trial, said on this point that he thought the gen- 
eral charge at the conclusion, saying " that be- 
fore you can convict him, the evidence must, in 
your opinion, estal^lish his guilt beyond a reason- 
able doubt," covered the question of the defend- 
ant's sanity. 

The next objection was the statement to the 
jury by the Judge that " the doubt, however, 
must be a reasonable one, arising out of the un- 
satisfactory character of the government's evi- 
dence." This, we contended, told the" jury, in 
substance, that they must found their doubts on 
the government's evidence alone. If that satis- 
fied them beyond a reasonable doubt it made no 
difference what evidence was introduced in de- 
fense, they might convict. Of course, such is 
not the law. 

Judge Allen answered this by saying that he 
thought the jury could not be misled by this be- 
cause, in the conclusion, he said " if from the 
entire evidence you have an abiding conviction 
of the truth of the charge, then you should find 
him guilty." 



224 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

But this last clause of his charge we object to, 
also, for the reason that the words " abiding con- 
viction" mean only a permanent or established 
belief, and the Judge should have added the 
other words always used in defining a reasonable 
doubt, to wit, '•'• to a moral certainty ^''^ making 
the proper instruction read, " if from the entire 
evidence you have an abiding conviction to a 
moral certainty of the truth of the charge, then 
you should find him guilty." 

We finally, after making several minor objec- 
tions to various other portions of the charge, 
made the general objection that the whole 
charge, from the first sentence, in which he calls 
the defendant Daniel Benton, to the last sen- 
tence, in which he directs the jury to find the 
defendant " simply guilty or not guilty," gave 
the jury clearly to understand that the Judge be- 
lieved the defendant to be Daniel Benton in- 
stead of William Newby, and that the jury so 
believing, and to save themselves the trouble 
of trying to reconcile the conflicting evidence, 
took the easier way of agreeing upon a verdict, 
in accordance with the wishes of the Judge. 

In answer to this. Judge Allen said, in sub- 
stance, that the Supreme Court, in two instances 
at least, had held that a federal judge had the 



m'cartney's letter. 225 

right to instruct the jury upon the facts in the 
case, and to give his opinion thereon, and might 
give his opinion of the guilt or innocence of the 
defendant if he gave the jury to understand that 
they were the judges of the evidence. 

In this we think the Judge enlarged too great- 
ly the meaning of the language of the Supreme 
Court in the cases he no doubt referred to. One 
of the cases referred to by the Judge is probably 
the case of Lovejoy vs. U. S., 128 U. S. Sup. Ct. 
Rep., p. 171, in which the court, by Mr. Justice 
Gray, says: " It is established by repeated decis- 
ions that a court of the United States, in sub- 
mitting a case, may, at its discretion, express its 
opinion upon the facts, and that such an opinion 
is not reviewable on error so long as no rule of 
law is incorrectly stated and all matters of fact 
are ultimately submitted to the determination of 
the jury." The same Judge stated the rule almost 
in the same words in the case of The Vicksburg 
& Meridian R. R. Co. vs. Putnam, 118 U. S. Sup. 
Ct. Rep., p. 545. 

In neither of these cases did the court pre- 
tend to draw or form a conclusion from the evi- 
dence, and intimate such conclusion to the jury. 
In the first case cited, the question at issue was 
whether or not the names of the sureties on a 



226 WILLIAM NKWBY. 

bond were forged. The Judge said, '^As to the 
signature of Thomas W. Means, I think you 
may have some difficulty in finding that it was 
a forgery. Of course it is not my place to ex- 
press an opinion, or say whether or not I think 
it is genuine. All I say is that you must ex- 
amine the matter carefully and fully, and weigh 
all the testimony that bears upon the subject, 
and if you can say that his signature is a forgery 
it is for you to do so." This is the whole of the 
instruction, or charge, complained of upon which 
was founded the decision of Mr. Justice Gray. 
How different from this was Judge Allen's 
charge. After raising all possible doubts as to 
the truth, honesty, sincerity, and knowledge of 
facts sworn to by defendant's witnesses, without 
a hint that possibly any of the government's 
witnesses might be mistaken in anything they 
had sworn to, the Judge merely said : " But, gen- 
tlemen, I forbear any general discussion of this 
evidence. In this country the evidence goes 
directly from the witness to the jury. The 
court's duty is performed when all proper aid is 
attempted to be given in assisting the jury in 
applying or placing value upon certain of its 
phases, which, by reason of want of familiarity 
with rules in regard to evidence, they are not 
able to readily and satisfactorily dispose of." 



m'cartney's letter. 227 

Did it aid the jury in placing value upon the 
phases of the evidence for want of familiarity 
with its rules by insinuating to them that evi- 
dence of defendant's witnesses "often wholly 
unrehable " when they reached their conclusion 
that he was Newby from conversations and 
" tests they had applied to him " ? Or that mere 
opinions of defendant's witnesses that he was 
Newby was of doubtful value when " they had 
not seen the party for thirty years"? Or that it 
is "remarkable that there is an entire absence 
of evidence either that the Confederates removed 
prisoners captured at Shiloh who could not 
walk or of the class to which the seriously 
wounded Newby belonged, or that any other 
prisoner captured by them at that battle ever 
found his way into the Andersonville prison," 
etc., etc., every sentence in the charge raising 
some doubt of defendant's innocence and leaving 
the matter of his guilt unquestioned? 

In the case of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal 
m. Knapp, 9 Peters, U. S. Sup. Ct. Rep., p. 541, 
Mr. Justice McLean, for the Supreme Court, 
said, "Where there is evidence on the point, the 
com t may be called on to instruct the jury as to 
the law, but it is for them to determine on the 
effect of the evidence." 



228 WILLIAM NKWBY. 

And in Tracy z's. Swarthout, lo Peters, U. S. 
Sup. Ct. Rep., p. 80, the same Judge says, "A 
court may not only present the facts proved in 
th-eir charge to the jury, but give their opinion 
as to those facts for the consideration of the jury. 
But, as the jurors are the triers of facts, such an 
expression of opinion by the court should be so 
guarded as to leave the jury free in the exercise 
of their own judgments. They should be made 
to distinctly understand that the instruction was 
not given as a point of law, by which they were 
to be governed, but as a mere opinion as to 
the facts, and to which they should give no more 
weight than it was entitled to." 

In the case of McLanahan z's. Universal Ins. 
Co., I Peters, U. S. Sup. Ct. Rep., p. 170, Mr. 
Justice Story, for the Supreme Court, said, "It 
is doubtless within the province of a court, in 
the exercise of its discretion, to sum up the facts 
in the case to the jury and submit them, with the 
inferences of law deducible therefrom, to the free 
judgment of the jury. But care should be taken 
in all such cases to separate the law from the 
facts, and to leave the latter in unequivocal terms 
to the jury as their true and peciiliar province." 

Tested by these authorities I can not see how 
it can possibly be claimed that Judge Allen's 



m'cartney's letter. 229 

charge to the jury can be sustained. He did not 
guard his opinions by in any way indicating to 
the jury that they were not to be governed by 
his opinions. He did not separate the law from 
the facts. He did not submit the facts to the 
free judgment of the jury. 

After Judge Allen overruled the motion for a 
new trial we filed a motion in arrest of the judg- 
ment, one ground of which is unquestionably a 
good one for the arrest. According to the indict- 
ment the defendant is Daniel Benton, and as 
such he attempted to defraud the United States 
Government by representing himself to be Wil- 
liam Newby, demanded a pension, and in his 
application alleged that he had never been dis- 
charged from the United States service, and was 
still a soldier in its army. Everyone knows that 
no person but a discharged soldier or sailor is 
entitled to a pension. This application could 
therefore deceive or defraud no one. The law 
under which this indictment was found declares 
that any person making any claim upon the gov- 
ernment, or any department thereof, knowing 
such claim to be false shall be punished, etc. 
This application, on its face, proved that it was 
no claim upon the government. Consequently 
the charge could in no event be sustained. 



230 WILIylAM NEWBY. 

The foregoing is all written upon the legal 
questions in the case. Of course, our main, prin- 
cipal, and never-to-be-lost-sight-of ground of de- 
fense is that the defendant is William Newby 
and not Daniel Benton. Were it not that we 
fully, conscientiously, and undoubtedly believe 
the defendant to be William Newby, and that on 
another trial we will prove this so conclusively 
that even Judge Allen will admit it, we would 
not urge these technical objections to the former 
trial. But believing that he is William Newby, 
and believing that we will so prove him to be, 
and that he has not had a fair and impartial 
trial, we intend to use all the lawful means in 
our power to secure another and fairer trial 
for him through the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Your Friend, 

James McCartney 




WILLIAM NEWBY RECEIVING HIS SENTENCE 
FROM JUDGE JOSHUA ALLEN. 

'' If you are William Newby you are a very unfortunate and a 
greatly injured man. If you are Daniel Benton you are a very 
guilty man. The jury has said that you are Daniel Benton, and 
with that verdict 1 have expressed my satisfaction. 

"The Court, in the discharge of his duty in connection with this 
case, sentences you to two years imprisonment at Chester at hard 
labor." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE COURT'S INSTRUCTIONS TO THE JURY. 

'T^HE defendant; Daniel Benton, alias William 
Newby, was indicted by the Grand Jury at 
the present term of the Court for presenting a 
false pension claim against the government, in 
which it is alleged he falsely claimed to have 
been the identical William Newby who enlisted 
in the service of the government of the United 
States in the war of the rebellion on August 6, 
1861, and becoming a member of Company D, 
in the 40th Regiment Illinois Infantry Volun- 
teers, and receiving, as he states in his applica- 
tion, a wound on the head at the battle of Shiloh 
on April 6, 1862. The indictment charges that 
the defendant" is not the said William Newby 
who belonged to said company and regiment and 
who was so wounded, but, on the contrary, is 
Daniel Benton, who was not a soldier. The 
case is an important one. The government dur- 

^33 



234 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

ing and after the war, through the several acts 
of congress on that subject, justly and liberally 
provided for pensioning soldiers suffering under 
disabilities for wounds or diseases contracted and 
incurred during their service, but properly de- 
vising severe penalties against anyone who 
should falsely and fraudulently attempt to draw 
money from the national treasury without hav- 
ing performed military service. This legislation 
should be construed and carried out so as to en- 
courage applications for pensions of meritorious 
soldiers, but at the same time defeat all fraudu- 
lent applications, and punish such as incur its 
penalties. This case, for some reasons, seems 
to have aroused intense feeling in many portions 
of the district, a feeling more intense on the 
streets and in the court-house than I have ob- 
served since coming on the bench. Such mani- 
festations do not have a healthy look, and there 
is certainly no occasion for them. It is pre- 
posterous to assume that any other motive than 
an honest desire to discharge official duties act- 
uated the officers of the government in investi- 
gating defendant's case, and accordingly they 
brought the trial under safeguards and forms of 
law. You also will, I am sure, in rendering your 
verdict, be governed by your love of government 
under the law and evidence. 



CHARGE TO THE JURY. 235 

One of the questions with which you have to 
deal is that of identity — the identity of two per- 
sons, in fact — William Newby and Daniel Ben- 
ton. Experience has shown that this question 
is frequently one of difficulty, and there are com- 
plications in this demanding your highest intel- 
igence. Many witnesses have sworn that the 
defendant is the identical William Newby he 
claims to be in his pension application. Many 
others have sworn that he is not — that he is 
Daniel Benton, who, born in White County, 
111., and when only a few years old, in company 
with his mother, moved with Andrew Wooten, 
in 1848 or 1849, to Williamson County, Tenn., 
where he remained uiitil 1862 or 1863. 

In determining which of these two classes, or 
bodies, of witnesses is most reliable you should 
in the first place carefully comprehend the traits 
and characteristics of the two men, socially, 
morally, and mentally. The resemblance of one 
man to another physically often misleads, but 
the old aphorism that no two men were ever 
alike within is full of wisdom for your guidance. 
Of the class of witnesses testifying that defend- 
ant is Newby many reach that conclusion be- 
cause of conversations had with him, and "tests," 
to use their language, they had appHed to him, 



236 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

the inference being that such conversations and 
tests related to matters of which the witness and 
Newby were severally cognizant. Such testi- 
mony is often unreliable. The man such wit- 
nesses call Newby may have been informed of 
such circumstances and equipped for such tests. 
It may be true, also, that many of this class of 
witnesses, without consideration, and from sym- 
pathy, or the charm of mystery, hastily formed, 
or thought they did, the opinion that de- 
fendant was Newby, and afterwards regarded 
him with no suspicion, and gradually, but natu- 
rally, accepted his narrations without any attempt 
to ascertain whether they were truthful or un- 
reasonable. 

But, gentlemen, you are the judges of the evi- 
dence, and in view of your experience in life, 
and your knowledge of men and things, must 
pass upon the value of their opinions on the 
question of identity expressed by witnesses when 
it is admitted that they had not seen the party 
for thirty years. A number of witnesses profess- 
ing to identify defendant as Newby testified to 
having seen him in line of battle at Shiloh on 
April 6, 1862. Some say he was, as they thought, 
mortally wounded; others that he was killed, 
and buried in a common grave, with six or seven 
comrades, on the battlefield. 



CHARGE TO THE JURY. 237 

The entire theory of the defense is that on 
that occasion Newby was very severely wounded, 
and captured by the Confederates as a prisoner 
of war, and removed by them several hundred 
miles to Anderson ville, Ga., where he pined for 
two or three years in prison, and afterwards in 
some manner found his way to the poorhouses 
in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and 
afterwards to the penitentiary of the latter state. 
It may occur to some of you as remarkable that 
there is an entire absence of evidence offered that 
the Confederates removed prisoners captured at 
Shiloh who could not walk, or the class to which 
Newby belonged, or that any other prisoner cap- 
tured by them at that battle of his class ever 
found his way into Andersonville prison. 

In examining into the theories of the govern- 
ment and defense, certain facts may be regarded 
as conceded. Among these, by the defense, that 
the man identified by the witnesses as having 
been in Andersonville prison in 1864, called 
" Crazy Jack," and afterwards in the Ohio poor- 
house in 1869, in the Indiana and Kentucky 
poorhouses in 187 1, '72, '73) and '74, and after- 
wards sentenced to the penitentiary in Tennes- 
see in 1877, as the present defendant. And this 
forces the inquiry as to whether differences in 



238 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

appearance and conduct, if any have been shown 
by the evidence, have been satisfactorily ex- 
plained or accounted for; for instance, is it 
reasonable or rational to believe that one who 
manifests the judgment or strength of mind the 
witnesses abscribe to defendant in Ohio, Indi- 
ana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, from 1869 to 
1889, would have been entirely and utterly for- 
gotten to his old home, family, and friends ? 

Considerations of this character demand your 
conscientious, intelligent attention. You have 
observed how members of the Newby family 
differ on the question of identity, two brothers 
and one sister saying that defendant is not New- 
by ; and two sisters and one brother giving as 
their opinion that he is their brother. The wife 
of William Newby is also permitted, under the 
peculiar circumstances of the case, of testifying, 
but you are instructed, in passing on the evi- 
dence, to keep in mind the fact that her testi- 
mony was given under belief that defendant was 
her husband, and for which she had mourned as 
dead for twenty-nine years ; and afterwards at- 
tach to it such weight, and such weight only, as 
under all the circumstances you think it entitled 
to. 

The expert evidence before you as to whether 



CHARGE TO THE JURY. 239 

defendant is suffering from hereditary or ac- 
quired disease, a disease incurred or contracted 
in childhood or one received in manhood, is of 
course important, and I trust it will aid you, 
but it is to be considered and passed upon by 
you in the light of your common sense and ex- 
perience in life. 

Evidence has been given showing the state of 
defendant's mind before or afterwards and at the 
time of the application for pension by defendant 
was made. 

If the defendant at that time was an idiot, a 
a lunatic, or affected with insanity, he should be 
acquitted. The law, however, does not require 
the highest, or even a very large measure of in- 
telligence, in order to hold one to responsibility. 
If at the time the defendant had sufficient mind 
to know right from wrong with reference to the 
particular transaction, then he was responsible. 
But if not, then he was incapable of committing 
crime. 

In passing upon this question, reference should 
be had to defendant's conduct and conversation 
before and about the time and after he applied 
for a pension. In considering the question as 
to whether defendant is William Newby you may 
well inquire whether he is Daniel Benton, and 



240 • WILLIAM NEWBY. 

for that purpose have reference to the descrip- 
tion of, and recognition of, the various witnesses 
— witnesses recognizing him as Benton, as well 
as any resemblance you may have discovered 
between the son of Benton, according to the 
testimony of his mother, and defendant. 

But, gentlemen, I forbear a general discussion 
of this evidence. In this country evidences go 
directly from the witnesses to the jury. The 
court's duty is performed when aid is attempted 
to be rendered in assisting the jury in applying 
or placing value upon certain of its phases, 
which, by reason of want of familiarity with 
rules in regard to evidence you are not able to 
render and satisfactorily dispose of. 

It is scarcely necessary to say, yet it is a rule 
of law for benefit of defendant, the evidence, in 
your opinion, must establish his guilt beyond a 
reasonable doubt. This is an old and wise rule. 
The doubt, however, must be a reasonable one, 
arising out of the unsatisfactory character of 
the government's evidence. A reasonable doubt 
is not a mere possibility of defendant's inno- 
cence; it is more than this — it is an unsat- 
isfied condition of the mind because of the 
unsatisfaction of the evidence to convict of the 
truth of the fact aforesaid. It is not demonstrat- 



CHARGE TO THE JURY. 241 

ing the truth of such fact ordinarily. The truth 
as to questions of fact is not demonstrative. If 
the evidence satisfies you of defendant's guilt 
to the same extent it would in your own minds 
authorize you to have with reference to the 
grave affairs of life, in a matter of impor- 
tance to you, then you are satisfied beyond a 
reasonable doubt ; or, to put it differently, if from 
the entire evidence you have an abiding con- 
viction of the truth of the charge, then you 
should find defendant guilty ; otherwise, you 
should acquit him. Your verdict is simply 
guilty or not guilty. You have nothing what- 
ever to do with the punishment. 





WILIvIA 

HIS COMRADES OF THE FORTIET 

TAKEN AT SPRINGI 



1 Sod Upton. 

2 C. H. White. 

3 Hanson Goodrich, 

4 James J. Watson. 



5 S. M. Wallace. 

6 David Holmes. 

7 Newton McRill. 

8 Samuel Bull. 




NEWBY. 

ILLINOIS INFANTRY VOLUNTEERS. 

*D, ILL., JULY 15, 1893. 



9 Thos. H. Harris. 

10 Geo. A. Miller. 

11 William Coburn. 

12 Whalen Newby. 



13 John Nell. 

14 James Colbert. 

15 "William McNeely. 



CHAPTER XL 

COMMENTS ON THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE 
COURT. 

THE case was tried by Hon. J. W. Allen, 
Judge of the United States Court for the 
Southern District of Illinois, who was appointed 
by President Cleveland during his first term. 
He is an able jurist and an accomplished gen- 
tleman. The legal portion of his life prior to 
his appointment has been spent in Southern 
Illinois. His home is at Cairo, we believe. 

In our comments upon the instructions of 
this Court the reader is asked to consider that 
in the mind of the Court whatever of prejudice 
or bias that may have once existed has been re- 
moved, and to consider, each for himself, the 
question as to whether a man, by reason of his 
qualifications for positions of honor among men, 
may not so entirely get away from his former 
environments as to deal fairly with his fellow 

243 



244 WIIvIvIAM NEWBY. 

men in all things. The writer believes a man 
may do this, and the apparent " leaning " that 
seems to run through the instructions of the 
Coiirt may raise the question as to why the 
special attention of the jury was called so forci- 
bly to certain points, very accurately noted, the 
effect of which would naturally tend to fix their 
minds upon phases of the evidence in such a 
manner as to cause them to overlook other 
phases of evidence, the effect of which would be 
to establish a doubt of his guilt. 

While a jurist is not supposed to take advan- 
tage of his superior knowledge of human nature, 
gathered from long experience and opportunity 
above that of almost everyone called as a juror, 
yet we must judge him in giving his instructions 
in this case, though so uncommon as not likely 
to occur again in a lifetime for importance, in 
the light of custom long establishod in criminal 
trials. We are to remember that the law puts a 
man upon trial charged by indictment with 
crime as nevertheless innocent until proven 
guilty, insomuch does it even try to teach us to 
look upon the person charged, but who comes 
clear, as having the same purity of character as 
though he had never been charged with crime. 
While this has long been attempted to be in- 



COMMENTS ON THE INSTRUCTIONS. 245 

culcated in the minds of men, nevertheless it 
leaves a little stain because of the record that 
even time does not efface, and sometimes the third 
and fourth generations are required to meet that 
record. If, perchance, he might have escaped 
trial on the charge from a technicality raised by 
astute council, or a defect in the indictment, or 
by reason of the many ways devised by practice 
to avoid the effects of actual transgression, and 
if a jury say "not guilty," the accused go acquit, 
the people have no appeal. Hence we may see 
the custom of the Court, in criminal cases, to 
lean 4 little to the people may be well founded, 
and not always the effect of bias or prejudice, 
and is exercised according to custom long found 
necessary for the protection of society. Yet in 
this case, after careful consideration of the in- 
structions, we think His Honor may not have 
been warranted in saying to that jury as to how 
any class of witnesses reached their conclusions 
as to the facts to which they testify, and more 
especially in the face of the fact that they were 
not permitted by the Court to detail to the jury 
any of the facts or circumstances by which they 
reached their conclusions, whereby they were 
enabled to identify the claimant — the material 
question in the inquiry ; His Honor further 



246 WILI^IAM NEWBY. 

telling the jury that such testimony is often un- 
reliable, thus taking from the jury the right to 
judge for themselves of its reliability, — their op- 
portunity being equal to that of the Court in 
their judgment of how the witnesses arrived at 
their conclusion. The doctrine has never re- 
ceived legal sanction that any court should as- 
sist a jury by reference to its own experience, 
for the obvious reason that the experience of a 
jurist would have more weight than the evidence 
of many witnesses. 

Then, again, reference is made by the Court 
to the jury that it may occur to them as remark- 
able that there is an entire absence of evidence 
offered as to when the claimant was taken to 
Andersonville, and how he got there, or the class 
of prisoners to which he belonged. By this 
reference a new point or question is raised in 
the mind of the jury not thought necessary in 
the trial of the case by either side. The trial 
being over, the suggestion coming from the 
Court may have had much influence, and the 
accused can only await the verdict. 

The Court also tells the jury that it is im- 
portant whether the disease with which claimant 
was suffering was hereditary or acquired; whether 
received in- childhood or maturity. Tells them 



COMMENTS ON THE INSTRUCTIONS. 247 

they may consider the expert testimony, but ad- 
monishes them to do so in the Hght of their com- 
mon sense and their experience in hfe. This 
last suggestion is capable of at least two con- 
structions. First, the jury may conclude from 
it that but little attention should be given to 
such evidence ; or, second, that without it they 
may determine the cause of injuries that claim- 
ant received in the light of their own experience 
and common sense, unaided by such expert tes- 
timony. And judging from the verdict in this 
important case, the instructions of the Court re- 
ceived as much, or more, consideration than the 
evidence of the almost two hundred witnesses 
offered before them, from the fact that the time 
consumed by the jury from the moment of their 
retirement from the court-room until the return 
of their verdict into court was less than twenty 
minutes. The jury in this case was composed 
of the following named gentlemen : 

John R. Thompson, Vermillion County.. 
John Easton, Athens " 

Joseph Rogers, McLain " 

Alex. Howard, Morgan " 

G. W. Winchester, Champaign " 
J. W. Hartwell, Williamson " 

C. W. Hammond, Clark " 



248 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

George Brown, Piatt County. 

J. O. Krintor, Schyler " 

John Lowry, Sangamon " 

B. S. Graves, " " 

John Kenny, " " 

All questioned and qualified as in other cases. 
The most remarkable feature of this jury in their 
hearing of this case was the conduct of some of 
them from the beginning. They seemed to be 
wholly forgetful of their duty, notwithstanding 
the every-day admonitions of the Court that they 
miist not speak of the case, not even among 
themselves, when, in fact, the conduct of some 
of them became so notorious that the Court, 
several days before the trial closed, found it 
necessary to place them in the hands of an offi- 
cer. The verdict of the jury, coming in with 
such indecent haste, to say that it was not a 
surprise to the multitude present, the entire 
city, and the whole country, who had caught the 
interest from the wires during the trial, would 
be untrue. Surprise is a mild term — even vio- 
lence seemed imminent on receipt of the verdict 
by the disappointed and surprised people. 

Many able lawyers have found, in their prac- 
tice in the higher courts of the government, that 
a difference seems to exist in the minds of the 



COMMENTS ON THE INSTRUCTIONS. 249 

people. When a citizen is arrested upon the 
charge of crime against the government of the 
United States they seem to be overawed, as it 
were. The machinery is more powerful. While 
it moves slowly, yet it is with an irresistible 
force. It appears to the citizen that he is to re- 
ceive justice without mercy — that the object is 
to make an example out of every man who gets 
into the clutches of its law. When a citizen is 
suspected of crime, detectives of long experience 
are put upon his track, who industriously follow 
it, and whose success often measures the time of 
his employment. They gather their evidence 
before they make the arrest — all that can be un- 
earthed outside — then they interview the man, 
and what they can not " force-pump " out of 
him by their astute methods they even some- 
times find it necessary themselves to go upon 
the stand and uncover all they consider neces- 
sary to give light on the case. 

Then they get much free advertising b}- being 
interviewed, and giving their wonderful discov- 
eries, which are spread before the pubhc. Even 
in this case the wonderful exploits of McBride, 
the special government agent, were fully set 
forth in a long article in the Cincinnati Enquir- 
er, a paper of great circulation, which showed 



250 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

clearly that the claimant was guilty, and this 
even before the return of the indictment against 
him, and the publication of this article, and the 
comments upon it by the local press, so fixed 
public opinion in the minds of the people against 
the claimant that it required much evidence to 
remove it. The claimant, being poor in purse 
and weak in mind, was put upon his trial . in 
this condition, and required to proceed. The 
prosecution opened the case with a cloud of 
witnesses who had been discovered by McBride, 
brought from a foreign state by the government, 
and furnished with mileage, bed, and board, and 
prepared to substantiate almost every word of 
the statements of the interview heretofore refer- 
red to. Thus the prosecution of the case is 
closed by a full substantiation to the jury of al- 
most every word previously published to the 
world, and read by the jury. 

Up to this time the jury had been unrestrained 
(running at large). Newby or Benton, was the 
word at every store, shop, or boarding-house in 
the city. Then the opinion was Benton at the 
close of the prosecution. At this stage of the 
trial the jury were taken charge of by an officer, 
with the special duty enjoined upon him not to 
allow them to be approached by any person from 



COMMENTS ON THE INSTRUCTIONS. 25 1 

the outside world — a circumstance probably sug- 
gested to the court by the condition of the pub- 
lic mind and the conduct of some of the jury- 
men with reference to it. So, in this condition 
the coming of the one hundred and sixty for the 
claimant of his neighbors, friends, and comrades 
of the old 40th Illinois, their evidence could not 
reach them, with the force added, of an im- 
mediate change in public pulse, after hearing 
their testimony. Hence, the effect of the change 
did not reach that jury, and the trial might have 
ceased at the close of the prosecution. Then 
the old aphorism, "that if you have a good case, 
try it by the court; if a bad one, let a jury come," 
is full of meaning, and warning as well ; and 
what a menace to our jury system. The hear- 
ing of a case by the court is within his province, 
and because of his profession. Not so with 
juries ; one professional on a jury renders the 
result uncertain. 

The evidence in this case the reader has 
doubtless read with much care, and he may con- 
sider it in the light of the evidence of the wit- 
nesses as they have given it ; together with all 
the light he may get from all the circumstances 
related in this book, many of which are as cor- 
rect as much of the evidence produced at the 



252 WIIvI^IAM NEWBY. 

hearing, to which and altogether, you may add 
your own experience with men and things ; and 
judge in the Hght of your common sense; and 
make up your verdict, which you may give ; not 
different from that jury ; but more time will be 
required in the consideration, and when done 
you may have a "reasonable doubt." 




CAPT. J. W. HILI,, FRIEND OF CLAIMANT. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONCLUSION, 

TTTHEN an old soldier writes a biography of 
^ another old soldier he may reasonably hope 
to find among the old veterans of the war an 
appreciative audience and his most charitable 
critics. 

Many of us were in our small twenties and at 
school when the roar of the first guns from Fort 
Sumter reverberated through the land, firing the 
heart of the North, and "turning striplings into 
men, and peaceful citizens into veteran soldiers." 

In those stirring times no class sprang forward 
with greater alacrity than the young men of the 
schools and colleges of the land. The halls of 
learning were deserted for the arduous duties of 
the .camp ; the text-book was exchanged for 
Hardee's Tactics ; and the logic of the books for 
the more convincing logic of the cold steel. 

When the war was over, we were too old, too 
crippled, and too poor to again enter the halls 
of learning, but we accepted the sacrifice with a 

255 



256 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

good grace, and trudged homeward, delighted 
with the opportunity to show to an astonished 
world how an army of half a million of veteran 
American soldiers could in a day be transformed 
again into peaceful, law-abiding American citi- 
zens. So, with whatever stock of learning he 
had, each man fell to " hustling " for a liveli- 
hood in the ordinary vocations of life, and, al- 
though a good many years have passed, yet, by 
the mercy of God, we still live to enjoy the liber- 
ties of a free country, and by the forbearance of 
the " powers that be" we continue to receive our 
little pensions, which were intended to, and 
which in a measure do, compensate for the time, 
opportunities, and health lost during those years. 

But, comrades, our ranks are fast thinning out. 
Time and disease have reduced brigades to the 
size of regiments ; have reduced regiments to ' 
companies ; and companies have dwindled to a 
corporal's guard, and often to a single man. 
Henceforth we must expect to pass away at a 
constantly accelerating rate. 

When thirty years more have passed, the old 
veterans will be very few and very feeble. Like 
the old palsied sentinels that stand guard over 
the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte, they will be 
the objects of melancholy interest and sympatlu'. 



CONCLUSION. 257 

Forty years hence, when the roll is called at the 
grand reunion where the silent majority have 
gathered beyond the grave, few will be absent, 
still lingering on the shores of time. 

In that year, the year of our independence 
one hundred and fifty-seven, let the President of 
the United States send forth his proclamation 
calling together at the Capital all who responded 
to the call of Father Abraham, and served in the 
Great War of Freedom. Let every state send 
all that remains of her quota to Washington, 
that the Nation may gather there and do them 
reverence. How many will there be in all ? 
One hundred ? One score ? Five ? If there be 
only five, yea, if there be but one, let the chief 
executive, the cabinet, congress, and all the peo- 
ple, with uncovered heads, gaze upon him — the 
last man of that mighty human wall that stood 
between free institutions and the curse of slav- 
ery. 

Comrades, we have seen some rough times, 
and our lives have been shortened somewhat by 
the destroying agencies incident to war, but we 
have lived a long time, and our lot has been a 
glorious one. 

"Better fifty years in Europe than a cycle in Cathay." 

Better ten years in free America than a hun- 
dred years in Europe. 



258 WILLIAM NEWBY. 

Although we have shortened our lives by a 
few years in serving our country, we have lived 
more, seen more, enjoyed more of life in this 
time than if we had existed during the whole 
period of the Roman Empire. 

Steam and electricity have annihilated time 
and distance, and have brought the whole world 
to our doors. There are no strangers, there are 
no foreigners novv^. To-day your little grand- 
children may go with you to the World's Fair, 
and converse with the inhabitants from all 
around the globe, from sun- scorched Africa to 
the dwellers around the Pole. They may walk 
with you in the streets of Cairo, and buy trinkets 
from the king of the Cannibals. 

We can lay our hands on the pulse of the 
world, and hear the murmur of the voice of the 
nations. 

The era of wars seems to be passing away. 
Let us hope that we were actors in the last, as 
well as the greatest war of modern times. The 
principles of arbitration is likely henceforth to 
control, and questions which it once required 
the blood of thousands to settle will be settled 
with a drop of ink. 

We live in a glorious age. Let us thank God 
that our lines have fallen to us in a pleasant 



CONCI.USION. 259 

place, and that ours has been the privilege of 
helping to perpetuate the principles of freedom 
ihat make our country glorious among the na- 
tions. 

The stability of our government is founded 
upon the intelligence and patriotism of the com- 
mon people, and is perfectly secure. The con- 
tentions of parties over the questions of tarift, 
finance, and fisheries are only questions of win- 
ter clothes, pocket mone}-, and marketing, which 
come into the experience of every well-governed 
family. 

Before laying down my pen I wish to express 
my honest conviction that every old soldier 
should see to it that the man who is the subject 
of this book should have a fair show, and receive 
the benefit of evenhanded justice. 

The question of the prisoner's innocence 
should be settled beyond the peradventure of a 
doubt. - Had a single slave been excluded from 
the benefits of Lincoln's proclamation, were it 
known to-day that a single negro was held in 
slavery by sanction of this government, the old 
soldiers and their children would rise up and 
demand his immediate and unconditional free- 
dom. How much more then ought we to see 
that justice is done to one who voluntarily 



26o WILLIAM NEWBY, 

fought to save the country, and to set these men 
free. If this man be William Newby, he is not 
only " an unfortunate and much injured man," 
as stated by the Judge, but he is the subject of 
the most cruel injustice and the basest ingrati- 
tude ever shown by a civilized government to 
one of its subjects. 

Think of it ! You remember well the motives 
of patriotism that induced you to leave your 
home and enlist in the war. You remember the 
hardships and horrors of that service. Imagine 
yourself shot in the head and made a cripple in 
body and an imbecile in mind, wandering about 
over the country in whose service you were shot, 
seeking for food and shelter. Imagine yourself 
imprisoned for eleven long years in the capital 
of the state whose soil was wet with your blood. 
Suppose that after thirty years' wanderings you 
are picked up by your friends and sent to the 
War Department to receive the little paper so 
precious to every old soldier — your honorable 
discharge. You totter up to the door of the 
government and make known your request. A 
voice from within says : " You are a little tardy, 
old man ; we turned off the ' discharge ' clerk 
twenty-five years ago. We are out of the busi- 
ness, and have torn up all the blanks." You in- 



CONCLUSION. 261 

sist: "This has been a long war to me; my story 
is a long one, and a sad one ; but I am in no 
shape to tell it. You can get it from my folks, 
and the boys that were in the army with me. I 
can show you my wounds, my worn-out body, 
and my comrades can tell you when and where 
I fell. x\sk my mates if I did not do my duty 
in your service. I am weary and well-nigh worn 
out, and only want that little paper and what- 
ever pension the government is willing to 
bestow." 

"The request is not regular" says the Depart- 
ment. " We will see about it." 

They " see about it" with a vengeance. 

An emissary is sent out to "see about it." 

You are brought up before a judge who con- 
siders it his business to " see about it." 

The jury steps out and for the fraction of 
eighteen minutes " sees about it." 

The result is that you are torn from your 
home, the old blue coat is taken off your back, 
you are dressed in the garb of a convict, and put 
in the penitentiary for two years' hard labor. 

This has been the history and this has been 
the fate of William Newby. It is an outrage too 
grievous to be borne, and every old soldier 
should make it his business to see that even- 



262 WILIvIAM NEWBY. 

handed justice is dealt out to this old man, who 
has been more unfortunate and more sinned 
against than were the victims of the Bastile or 
the Prisoner of Chillon. 



NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 263 



NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 

I would be ungrateful, and my work would be 
incomplete, were I not to acknowledge the assist- 
ance received from others. 

Mr. E. S. Robinson has aided me very materi- 
ally in compiling and classifying the evidence at 
the trial. 

Especial mention must be made of H. F. Sib- 
ley, Capt. N. S. McCowan, and J. Wagley Hill, 
the committee of assistance for the unfortunate 
man. The latter gentleman has been especially 
active in searching for the whereabouts of the 
"missing link," Dan Benton. 

It is one of the novel features of this extraor- 
dinary case that the defense was not only re- 
quired to prove the identity of the prisoner as 
Newby, but also to account for the fate of or 
produce the original Benton. The prosecution 
said, in effect: "We say this man is 'Rickety 
Dan ' Benton. If you say it is Newby, then 
where is Dan Benton ? " This conundrum being 



264 WIIvLIAM NEWBY. 

sprung when the defense had neither the time 
nor the money to investigate, had to remain for 
the time unanswered. 

Since the trial, Mr. Hill has gone to work on 
the investigation with the energy worthy of a 
good cause, and with very gratifying results. It 
looks now as if the history or fate of Benton will 
be ferreted out. Think of the task of finding a boy 
who disappeared during the war. Think of the 
thousands of young men who leave their homes 
and never write to tell of their whereabouts. 
Think how unlikely Dan would be to write to a 
mother who was capable of returning him to the 
penitentiary for a reward of eighty-nine cents a 
year. Think of the thousands of graves all over 
the South marked "Unknown," Think of the 
thousands more that were never marked at all. 
Think of the number of bodies in the morgues 
of our cities stretched on slabs for identification, 
and of how many of them in the last thirty years 
have been buried in potters' fields. Think of 
the hundreds that have been run over by trains, 
or picked up as floaters in our rivers in the last 
thirty years. Think of Charley Ross. Think 
of the great number of advertisements in the 
daily papers offering large rewards for people 
who have disappeared from sight. Think that 



NOTE BY THE AUTHOR. 265 

at this time one of the best known men m the 
West, a man high up in financial and social cir- 
cles, has disappeared without apparent reason, 
and the best detective force in the world has 
failed to disclose his whereabouts. Think of all 
these things, and then the labors and success of 
Mr. Hill will be appreciated. 




COIv. S. G. HICKS, OF THE 40TH ILI.INOIS. 



APPENDIX. 

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 40TH 
IIvLINOIS INFANTRY UP TO THE BATTI^E OF SHILOH, 
AND OF' THE PART TAKEN IN THAT EN- 
GAGEMENT. 

(Compiled from History of 40th Illinois Infantry by Sergeant 
E. J. Hart.) 

A BOUT the first day of May, 1861, Stephen 
-^-^ G. Hicks, a lawyer of Salem, Marion 
County, Illinois, commenced laboring for the 
purpose of raising a body of men for the military 
service of the United States. The public mind 
had become very much excited in consequence 
of the seeming near approach of the outburst 
of rebellion; and all were ready to rush to arms 
to rescue our loved government from dissolution 
and ruin. The persevering and determined 
Hicks, by his masterly eloquence and earnest 
appeals in behalf of our once happy country, ex- 
perienced no difficulty in procuring a sufficient 
number of men to form a complete regiment. 

367 



268 APPENDIX. 

But many were so impatient for the order, 
Forward march ! that they abandoned the one 
they had chosen first for leader, and attached 
themselves to other regiments which had been 
already accepted and were then on their way to 
take the field. In this manner several companies 
which he had been instrumental in organizing, 
and which he hoped to be able to form into his 
proposed regiment, were taken from him. De- 
termined not to be baffled in his intentions to 
lead a regiment of men into the field, he imme- 
diately commenced a rigid canvassing through 
the surrounding country. He addressed large 
and enthusiastic assemblies on the subject of the 
distracted condition of our country and the im- 
portance of prompt and immediate action of all 
truly loyal citizens for her salvation. Such meet- 
ings were held by him in the counties of Clay, 
Wayne, Franklin, Hamilton, Marion, and White, 
and by them succeeded in organizing companies 
and personally endeavored to have them prop- 
erly officered by good, reliable, and efficient men, 
as it was his intention to take the best men into 
the service that Illinois had yet sent, and which 
he intended making the Egyptian regiment. 
About the last of May the required number of 
men was reported to him ready to meet his 
orders to rendezvous at any time. 



APPENDIX. 269 

He immediately informed Governor Yates that 
he had a regiment of men ready to enter the 
service, and wished to be received at once. Gov- 
ernor Yates soon rephed that he had already 
furnished the Secretary of War the full quota of 
troops from his state, and that under no consid- 
eration could he accept any more. Hicks then 
then addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, 
Hon. Simon Cameron, begging him to receive 
his regiment at once, stating that he had as good 
a body of men as was ever taken into the ser- 
vice, which he very much desired to lead against 
the rebellious foe. Cameron soon replied that 
it was impossible for him to admit any more 
troops from Illinois, as he had already accepted 
more than her quota. Hicks resolved to hold 
his men in readiness, feeling assured that the ex- 
ecutive authorities were underrating the strength 
of the rebellion, and that the government would 
soon need more troops to effectually crush out 
the gigantic monster of treason and infamy, and 
that he would stand at the head of the lists of 
applicants and thereby secure an early admis- 
sion. His subordinate officers, impatient to be 
off, visited him continually at his residence to 
see if there was any possible chance for them to 
be allowed to enter the field; but he advised 



570 APP]^NDiX. 

them to keep their men in readiness, be patient, 
and that in course of time they would undoubt- 
edly have an opportunity of engaging in the work 
they seemed to desire so much. 

On the 2 2d of July, 1861, our army, under 
command of General McDowell, met with a dis- 
astrous defeat at Bull Run. 

On the 24th of July Hicks telegraphed to the 
Secretary of War that he still had his regiment 
in perfect readiness for the service, and wished 
to be admitted immediately. And on the 25th 
of July the Secretary accepted his regiment, and 
telegraphed him to report to Governor Yates for 
further instructions. Thus the 40th was ac- 
cepted by the Secretary of War in advance of 
the call by Congress for four hundred thousand 
troops, and were to take the field as soon as the 
executive authorities made the proposed call at 
law. Accordingly Hicks visited the governor 
at Springfield and reported his acceptance, and 
also made all necessary preparations for camp- 
ing, etc. 

He received orders to go into camp at Clear 
Lake, near Springfield, on the 6th of August. 
He then went to St. Louis and engaged trans- 
portation of the president of the Ohio & Mis- 
sissippi Railroad for his regiment to Sandoval, 



Appendix. ^71 

when he returned to his residence and issued 
orders to the respective company commanders 
to rendezvous their companies at Sandoval on 
the morning of the 5th of August. 

Sunday morning, the 4th, the Fairfield com- 
pany, Capt. Hooper, the Mount Erie and JefFer- 
sonville company, Capt. Ulm, and the Burnt 
Prairie company, Capt. E. Stuarts, all met at 
Ensley's Point, on Indian Prairie. In the after- 
noon the New Baltimore company, Capt. Scott, 
joined us on our way to the road, which made 
four companies in our procession, that were 
marching to Flora, where we arrived about five 
o'clock in the evening. 

As we boarded the cars the next morning we 
witnessed the most exciting scene ever beheld in 
our lives. Language fails to describe the excite- 
ment of that particular moment. Hundreds of 
parents, brothers, sisters, and friends mingled 
their voices in the tremendous shouts for the 
Union, as their loved ones were starting from 
their happy homes to meet the traitors to our 
country. Aged fathers with streaming eyes 
cheered their sons as they were just entering on 
their toilsome and perilous duties. Five com- 
panies were then with us ; the four companies 
which embarked at Flora, with the Clay City 



272 APPENDIX. 

company, Capt. More, which took the cars at 
Clay City. After a few miles' run we came to 
Xenia, where the Mount Carmel and Xenia 
company, Capt. Hoskinson, was waiting to join 
us. 

The cars now moved on to Salem, a distance 
of eighteen miles ; when we reached that place 
the Hamilton County company, Capt. Hall, with 
a part of the Salem and Vandalia company, 
Capt. S. Stuart, were in waiting for us, and soon 
were on the train, when in the usual manner we 
again started on amidst the united shouts of 
many and ardent friends, and passed on to the 
village which was our place of rendezvous. 

At Salem our new colonel, S. G. Hicks, whom 
everyone regarded as the father of our new regi- 
ment, took the cars, and with his old, rusty 
Mexican saber in hand, passed through the en- 
tire train, which produced quite a sensation on 
all those present. We arrived at Sandoval about 
ten o'clock a. m., where we met the Kinmundy 
company, Capt. Both, and a part of the Salem 
and Vandalia company. 

At two o'clock in the evening all the com- 
panies were ordered to muster, and to form the 
regiment in close columns of companies in front 
of the American House, which they did at the 



APPENDIX. 273 

appointed hour. Stephen G. Hicks now pre- 
sented himself at the head of the column, and 
addressed them in the following manner: 

"Gentlemen: I am happy to see you assem- 
bled together to-day, and in such a favorable 
condition. I have labored among you earnestly 
for the purpose of organizing a regiment of men 
for the United States service, and through my 
labors and your own perfect knowledge of the 
great principles of right and justice I have been 
able to obtain my much desired object. You have 
nobly done your first and highest duty to your 
country in thus so promptly turning out and 
rushing to her assistance in this her darkest hour 
of peril. As I have often told you before, in pub- 
lic addresses, it is my intention to go with you, 
and with you share the toils and tribulations of a 
soldier's life, and with you I am ready to meet the 
bloody crew on the bloody field of conflict who 
have dared to insult our national standard and to 
deny her sovereignty. I know you are all men of 
veracity and true courage, and the best Egyptian 
Illinois affords, and I do earnestly desire to have 
the great honor of leading such a band of noble 
men into the field; yet I do not feel disposed to 
take such a high and responsible position with- 
out the united wishes of every one of you. I 



274 APPENDIX. 

will now pledge you my sacred honor as a man 
that if you see proper to choose me for your 
colonel, I will be with you to the end. I will 
ever be to you as a father. I will labor assid- 
uously for your welfare while in camp, and in 
every condition in which you may be placed it 
will be the delight of my heart to render each 
and every one of you any aid or comfort which 
lies in my power. And when we are called to 
fight our enemies I will lead the way. I will be 
in your front on the advance, and on the retreat 
I will guard your rear. We will advance against 
the foe as a united band of brothers fighting in 
the same great and righteous cause." 

Cheer after cheer rent the air as the illustrious 
and patriotic man spoke to his attentive audi- 
ence. After speaking in this manner for some 
time, while the most intense interest and wildest 
excitement prevailed, he said, '' Now, gentlemen, 
if there is any man here, or among you, wishes 
to ask for your votes for colonel he is at perfect 
liberty to come forward." Here he ceased speak- 
ing to wait for any who might wish to offer for 
the position, but no one coming out a profound 
silence reigned until he proceeded by saying, 
"All that wish me for their commanding officer 
will please make known that desire by raising 



APPENDIX. 275 

your right hands." In an instant all hands were 
lifted into the air at arm's length. Next was a 
scene of mingled enthusiasm and commotion 
which baffles all description. Peal after peal of 
most tremendous shouts of approbation and ex- 
citement and satisfaction was indulged in by 
everyone. The newly made colonel now retired, 
while each company broke ranks and spent the 
day as they wished. 

Thus, through the untiring energies of our 
much-loved colonel, the 40th Regiment was at 
last organized, and one of the best men the 
country afforded placed at its head without a 
dissenting voice. The Colonel had his men so 
completely in readiness for marching that, not- 
withstanding they were scattered over seven dif- 
ferent counties, and were busily engaged in their 
usual vocations of life, sixty hours after he had 
issued orders at his residence in Salem to the 
various companies to meet at Sandoval, ever}- 
man was there according to orders. Another 
important fact was that the regiment did not cost 
the government one cent until it took the cars 
for its place of rendezvous, as the Colonel had 
defrayed all expenses up to that time. 

In the evening we started for Camp Butler, 
and Col. Hicks thus met his engagement to go 
into camp on the 6th day of August. 



276 APPENDIX, 

The regiment was sworn into the service the 
loth day of August and on the nth started to 
Jefferson Barracks, where we arrived the same 
day at twelve o'clock. 

On the morning of the 31st of August, at early 
dawn, we took a steamer and moved down the 
great Mississippi River. 

On Sunday, September i, at nine a. m., we 
arrived at Bird's Point, Mo., which is opposite 
Cairo, Illinois. 

On Thursday, September 5, 1861, we drew our 
military uniform, and on Saturday, September 7, 
we received orders to move to Paducah, Ky. 
where our regiment remained for six months. 

There was great dissatisfaction on the part of 
the regiment on account of their prolonged stay 
at Paducah, and of not being permitted to take 
part in the capture of Forts Henry and Donald- 
son. However, on Thursday, March 6, the long- 
desired orders came to march, and embarking on 
the steamers Sallie List and Golden Gate we 
started for the Tennessee River, Colonel Hicks 
being in command of the night brigade, and the 
regiment commanded by Colonel Boothe. 

On Friday, March 7, we passed Fort Henry, 
On the 8th we reached Savannah. After remain- 
ing several days on the transport boats, varied 
with a little fatigue duty on shore, on Monday, 



APPENDIX. 2"]"] 

March 17, at one o'clock a. m., we were ordered 
to go ashore, with two days' rations 

The 6th Iowa Infantry was there attached to 
onr brigade, and their commander. Col. John 
Adair McDowell, being Col. Hicks' senior, took 
command of the brigade. After a scanty morn- 
ing meal, prepared under unfavorable circum- 
stances, we marched out at eight o'clock. We 
moved about four miles from the landing, and 
halted in an old field, where we remained over 
the night, sending out pickets, who were sta- 
tioned at a log meeting house belonging to the 
Methodist denomination, since so notable as the 
Shiloh Church, from which the great battle 
fought in that vicinity derived its name. 

Thus the 40th boys were the first Union sol- 
diers that stood picket at the Shiloh Church. 

Thursday, March 20, our camp equipage and 
.all our baggage had at last reached us. Our 
tents were soon put up, and our camp perma- 
nently located near Owl Creek, on the Rolla 
Road, where we remained encamped during our 
stay at that post. Our brigade was camped on 
the extreme right of the army, and the other 
regiments and batteries of the great army of the 
Tennessee were posted between us and the 
landing. 

Sunday, March 30, was a beautiful morning. 



278 APPENDIX. 

There seemed to be more than ordinary quiet 
through the camp of the 40th, as though the day 
of rest was at that time to be observed with due 
reverence. Many of the boys were thoughtfully 
perusing books or papers, and some, I am happy 
to say, reading good books ; while others were 
busy writing letters to friends, or reviewing some 
kind missive which had been received — all caus- 
ing the camp to wear a sober and meditative air 
seldom ever noticed before. Under these favor- 
able circumstances Chaplain Massey resolved to 
hold divine service at the hour of eleven o'clock 
a. m. His remarks were affecting, showing the 
uncertainty of life, and consequently the impor- 
tance of ever being ready for death, the certain 
lot of all. He stated that, in consideration of 
the uncertainties of war, it was hard to tell what 
a day would bring forth, and that ere another 
Christian Sabbath would pass many of the num- 
ber then present might be in vast eternity. How- 
ever Hghtly anyone might have reflected on that 
solemn yet truthful thought at that time, there 
was no doubt, after the horror of the eventful 
Sabbath day following, in which so many of our 
loved comrades were laid low by the hands of 
our enemies, that their minds were impressed by 
the importance of giving that solemn reflection 
due consideration, 



APPENDIX. 279 

BATTLE OF SHILOH. 

On the evening of Friday, the 4th of April, 
there was a smart skirmish to the south of our 
camp, two or three miles distant. The reports 
of fire-arms were plainly heard, which caused 
some suspicion that there were enemies not far 
distant, and some precautionary arrangements 
were made in the regiment. When firing com- 
menced, the long roll was beaten in our regi- 
ment, and we stacked arms on the color line 
ready for action should it be necessary. In the 
evening Company B, under command of Lieut. 
Harrelson, was sent out to strengthen the picket 
line in our front, which was about one half mile 
beyond Owl Creek. 

Saturday, 5th. That morning Company E, 
under command of Capt. Ulm, was ordered and 
stationed a short distance in the rear of the 
picket line to serve as its support in case of an 
attack by the enemy. Quiet continued during 
the day, and many of the boys began to doubt 
the probability of the rebels troubling us. Dur- 
ing the night, however. Company B's boys, who 
were on the front line, were convinced that an 
enemy was hovering near, as they could hear 
them moving continuously through the brush. 



28o APPENDIX. 

Sunday, April 6. As soon as daylight came 
all doubts about the enemy being near our lines 
were dispelled, for their movements could be 
plainly observed through the woods. About sun- 
rise an occasional shot could be heard on our 
left ; and in a few moments the attacking rebel 
column made its appearance, and Company E, 
the support, was ordered on the line, which com- 
mand was readily obeyed, the company going to 
the edge of an open field on the line, and, lying 
down, remained there a few moments when it 
fired a volley across the field. This was a signal 
for our pickets to rally. The rebels' line of skir- 
mishers then stole up and fired on the pickets. 
One ball took effect, killing a man belonging to 
Company E instantly, being the first man of the 
40th who lost his life in action. The pickets 
then began to fall back slowly, firing as they re- 
tired. 

The rebels planted one piece of artillery, which 
fired three times as a signal for their entire line 
to move forward. They continued to press our 
line, which was drawn in slowly, until it reached 
the camp of our regiment, when the two picket 
companies took their respective positions on the 
line which was drawn up in front of our quarters, 
with the 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and the 



APPENDIX. 281 

6th Iowa Infantry on our right. The regiment 
was soon ordered to move, which it did, passing 
over the ravine in our front, and taking a posi- 
tion on the opposite hill. There we remained 
for some time, while there was some hard fight- 
ing close on our left, from which we could dis- 
cern our men giving back, and occasionally a 
ball would whizz past us, striking a tree or some- 
thing else. A column of infantry was then seen 
moving down the opposite slope of Owl Creek, 
in blue uniform, which was really the enemy, 
but they deceived us. The officers declared they 
were our men until they were close on us, in as 
good position as they desired, without any resist- 
ance. We then fired a volley at them, when the 
Colonel ordered "By the right of companies to 
the rear into column." We were to fall back to 
the Rolla Road, which we did, marching by the 
right flank, arriving on the road, and formng into 
line. There considerable confusion occurred, as 
all the teams, and as much valuable property as 
could be loaded easily on the wagons, were driv- 
ing for the rear as rapidly as possible. The 
troops on our left were pressed very hard, and 
were still retreating slowly, fighting with great 
desperation. This made it unsafe, and perfectly 
useless for us, occupying the right, to remain 



282 APPENDIX. 

there longer, and we were compelled to abandon 
our camp and retreat. We followed the Rolla 
Road toward the river, marching column, with 
left in front, until we passed our brigade head- 
quarters, when we marched by the flank toward 
the north, through a dense thicket. The rebels 
were closely in pursuit, and would send an oc- 
casional ball rather nearer us than was agreeable. 
Giving back in that manner so long, with the 
enemy hotly pursuing us, without receiving any 
resistance, was encouraging them to follow, and 
greatly confusing the men of our regiment, who 
were willing and anxious to contend for every 
inch of ground over which we were retreating. 
We were soon halted and thrown into line of 
battle, fronting to the east, and extending along 
the brow of a bank, behind which was a large 
swamp, and on which there had once been a 
fence, causing a thick undergrowth of sassafras. 
We then, as rapidly as possible, got our position, 
and laid down to await the advance of the enemy, 
who soon showed themselves on the next hill, 
directly east of us, only a short distance oif. 
Their banner could be distinctly seen when they 
opened on us, making the brush rattle around 
us. We then poured a heavy fire into their 
ranks, when they replied by firing several charges 



APPENDIX. 283 

of canister shot from a fieldpiece, doing us great 
damage, wounding several, and some mortally. 
Another well-directed volley from our good mus- 
kets drove the rebels from their ground, which 
was fortunate for us, as in that position they 
separated us entirely from the other part of the 
army, which might have resulted in our capture. 
Seeing this opportunity to extricate ourselves 
from that precarious position, we immediately 
advanced across the valley and to the ground 
just abandoned by the rebels, marching in line, 
leaving our waunded to be taken to an old build- 
ing close by used as a hospital. When the point 
just spoken of was reached we marched by the 
left flank in a northerly direction for about one 
quarter of a mile, then bearing to the east for a 
short distance we halted in a field near some old 
buildings, when we marched in line of battle 
across the fences into an open wood, nearly two 
hundred yards distant, and rested in a ravine, on 
a spring branch, for some time. While in that 
position we were shielded from the artillery fire 
of the enemy. About that time there was a des- 
perate fight between one of our batteries and the 
rebels, the shots passing continually over our 
heads, doing us no injury, however, only causing 
us to hover near earth in earnest. 



284 APPENDIX. 

About eleven o'clock we were ordered forward 
to relieve a regiment in our front, which was 
pressed, and was falling back. We moved in 
line of battle up the hill about fifty yards, when 
we came into a narrow open space,'in plain view 
of the enemy. There the' regiment we were to 
relieve were firing rapidly, and when they saw 
us they cheered loudly, waving their hands and 
welcoming us to their relief. We passed them 
about thirty yards and began firing, which we 
kept up with great spirit and determination for 
a considerable length of time, during which there 
was a complete shower of grape, canister, and 
musket-shot mowing down our gallant boys with 
great slaughter. It was in that place we lost so 
many of oiir brave men while, withoiit flinching, 
they defiantly held their ground. There was 
great diversity of opinion relative to the length 
of time we were in that hard struggle, but those 
best qualified to know say that it did not exceed 
an hour and a half, during which we lost forty- 
six enlisted men killed, and a great number in 
wounded. Col. Hicks, in the thickest of the 
fight, was in the front, urging his men on, direct- 
ing their fire into a rebel battery close in our 
front, from which we succeeded in driving its 
gunners, when his horse was shot from under 



APPENDIX. 285 

him. As soon as the Colonel recovered his feet 
again, a bullet struck him in the left shoulder, 
rendering him almost helpless. His orderly, 
with the help of others, conveyed him back to 
the river, that he might receive surgical aid. 
The regiment was ordered to retreat, which it 
did, marching back over the same ground on 
which it had advanced. 

After retreating some distance. Major Smith 
ordered a halt, and, after considerable difficulty, 
succeeded in getting our thinned ranks in order 
again, when we laid down for rest and protection 
from the enemy's shells. Soon some General's 
Aid passed by, inquiring, " What regiment is 
that?" To which the Major responded, "The 
40th Illinois." The Aid then said, " In the name 
of God, why are you not moving against the 
enemy?" The Major responded, "We have ex- 
pended all our cartridges." The Aid replied, 
"Then fix bayonets, and you can meet them 
when they come; for they are massing their 
forces in our front, and will evidently press us 
with great strength and renewed vigor." The 
Major then formed the regiment in line ready 
for an emergency. 

At four o'clock we were ordered back toward 
the river to support the line of heavy siege guns. 



286 APPENDIX. 

which had been formed there. There the regi- 
ment spent the night, without any refreshments 
and but little repose, remaining in line and under 
arms all night. Early next morning we were 
furnished with an abundant supply of rations, 
which was welcomely received and speedily de- 
voured, as by that time we could relish army 
rations. 

Our orders were that we were to be under 
command of Gen. Nelson, of BuelPs army, which 
was then participating in the fight and to operate 
as his reserve. Gen. Nelson's command was on 
the left, and soon engaged the enemy with his ad- 
vance, our regiment following in the rear as the 
reserve. The enemy's balls would fly past us 
continually, but seldom ever injuring anyone. 
Our troops were driving the rebels slowly and 
steadily, and our boys following them within 
supporting distance. The left of the front line 
being pressed, our regiment and one battery were 
ordered there. We marched by the left flank 
along the line until we gained our position on 
the left, where there was some rapid firing done, 
wounding some of our boys and killing one. By 
the assistance of the artillery we soon succeeded 
in completely routing the enemy and driving 
them from the ground from which they had been 



APPENDIX. 287 

twice driven before. The enemy was then in 
full retreat, and our boys, notwithstanding they 
were greatly fatigued, seemed eager to follow 
them up, giving them their parting compliments 
wdth leaden messengers. The enemy's skir- 
mishers continued to fire at us from behind some 
tents, trees, etc., in our front, until we were 
ordered to fix bayonets, move forward, and find 
out their strength. Accordingly we passed the 
tents, the enemy falling back. Their fire slack- 
ening, we halted, and remained there until 
evening. 

About sundown we moved back one half mile, 
stopping on a road which was very muddy, 
where we were posted on picket guard. During 
the night a heavy rain fell, causing our situation 
to be exceedingly disagreeable, as all were com- 
pelled to stand on post in the rain without any 
shelter. The boys still say that the Monday 
night of the Shiloh battle was the most dis- 
agreeable night they ever spent in the army. 

Tuesday, 8th. In the morning we moved to 
the camps of the 71st O. V. I., where we helped 
ourselves to some grub which we found there. 
We were ordered to remain there and bury the 
dead that were near that place. While there 
the regiment in whose camps we were stationed 



288 APPENDIX. 

came in and complained of our taking posses- 
sion, when our boys told them they had driven 
the rebel : from there, and being much in need 
of rations thought they had a right to help them- 
selves. Major Smith being sick during the day, 
Capt. Hall was in command of the regiment. 
After having labored all day in burying the dead 
we rested for the night on the same ground we 
had occupied. 

Wednesday, 9th. That morning Gen. Sher- 
man sent orders to Maj. Smith to return to the 
regiment's old quarters, which we did at once. 
We soon reached, greatly wearied, our quarters, 
glad of the opportunity of resting once more. 
Many of our little affairs about camp had been 
destroyed by the enemy. Our knapsacks were 
all robbed of clothing or little friendly memen- 
toes, such as miniatures of loved ones, which 
the villains generally threw on the ground and 
stamped on them. The remaining part of our stay 
in that camp was the most unpleasant we ever 
spent in camp, for there was no joyousness or 
life in the camp; all seemed to mourn some sad 
calamity, and besides mental depression there 
was a general prostration of the physical powers, 
all appearing languid, dull, and sluggish. We 
all remember, with feelings of sadness, what a 



APPENDIX. 289 

^distressing solemnity prevailed throughout the 
40th, and it seemed as if the regiment could 
never recover from the shock. Sickness soon 
followed, making things still worse. All our 
boys who were wounded were either sent to their 
homes or hospitals. 

Col. S. Hicks, immediately after he received 
his wound, was removed to the landing and 
placed on a large hospital boat, which started 
down the river on the evening of Tuesday, April 
7, and arrived at Mound City on the evening of 
Friday, loth. He was immediately taken to a 
hospital, where, by kind nurses and competent 
and experienced surgeons, he was attentively 
cared for. After remaining there until the i8th 
of April, he was taken to his home at Salem, 111., 
where he suffered very severely from disease and 
the eifect of his wound. As soon as his health 
would permit, he returned to his regiment, which 
he joined at lyafayette on the i8th of July, 1862. 



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